My Cadet
by weshallflyaway2
Summary: Following the triggers mission and Dr Mishra's arrest, Naina must navigate the changing nature of their relationship with Rajveer, the expectations of her parents, and her future now that her mission to prove her brother innocent is complete. It's a good thing that they have the support of their friends to see them through.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: So this was the first fic I ever wrote for Left Right Left, and it as written during the hiatus, at a time we knew a gunshot had been fired, but not who fired it or who was shot. I've changed little bits of the story since then, but it remains much the same as when it was first posted.

**My Cadet**

_Prologue_

21 hours of solitary confinement to go and Raj had already run out of things to distract himself with. For the first two hours he'd been so angry with Major Bharghav that he hadn't been able to think about anything else. An hour had been spent cursing the man, and another hour thinking of what he'd like to do to him if he ever got him alone. It was around the two-hour mark that Raj couldn't ignore the thoughts that kept coming into his head anymore. What was happening to Naina right now? Was she under suspicion, or did the rest of the cadets accept that it was an accident? Would her friends stand by her now when she needed them the most? One thing was for certain, if she was in trouble because of him, he'd never forgive himself or that damn Bharghav…

It was when four hours had passed that he started replaying everything that had happened in his mind.

"_Aur cadet Singh to mere protégé hai, main uski mentor hoon, to…it's so funny…"_

What a god damned stupid reason to say. Honestly, couldn't he have thought of anything better than that? He'd managed to find good reasons why he couldn't be in love with either Dr Shalini or Pooja, but for Naina…only a reason that he _shouldn't_ be in love with her. And truthfully he shouldn't be in love with her, not now, not ever, for so many reasons more than just because she was his cadet. No, he wasn't in love with her, no, he definitely wasn't. No, no, no, no, not in love and certainly not with Naina Singh Ahluwalia. He just hadn't been able to think of a good reason why he wouldn't be…

Five hours and he was beginning to go crazy. He didn't want to be in this room, where he had no idea of what was happening outside. Was Naina alright? Was she thinking about him? No, wait, it didn't matter if she was thinking about him, it was better if she thought how to save herself from this mess. Whatever happened, whatever he needed to do, he'd make sure nothing happened to her, that she could fulfil her mission, no matter what it cost him.

He couldn't stop thinking of her. Only six hours finished, with eighteen to go, and Naina wouldn't get out of his head. Her smile, her laugh, the trust in her eyes when she would look at him. Their conversations and their moments together replayed over and over in his mind. He tried to think of something else but still couldn't get her out of her head, so he turned to exercise to distract himself.

Ten pushups went by before his plan failed, and before he could stop himself she was all he could think about. He remembered the way she felt when he hugged her after he'd told her of her brother's death, how soft she'd been in his arms, how warm…he pushed himself harder to try and stop the thoughts coming but it only made it worse, until finally…

"Nahi! Yeh sach nahi hai, main Naina se Pyaar ne karta…" he pushed himself up, trying to convince himself that there was nothing in his heart "Aisi nahi ho sakta, joot hai yeh!" but when he looked in the mirror, his eyes told him otherwise. "Joot hai yeh!" he screamed, wanting it to be so, wanting to smash the truth that was so clear to him along with the mirror. Until he heard a voice…

"Kya joot hai, Raj?" and Navin's ghost sat before him.

/

Navin was gone, and Raj wasn't sure if he had hallucinated him or whether the ghost had really paid him a visit. But nothing could change the realisation he'd come to…he loved Naina Singh Ahluwalia. He shouldn't love her, he really shouldn't, but he just couldn't stop himself. 'You'll only ruin her', he told himself, 'Nobody will ever forgive you for this', but it didn't matter because it was well and truly embedded into his heart.

He loved her. He didn't know when and where it had happened, but it had, and now he had to deal with it. Twelve hours gone and still twelve to go, and he couldn't get Naina 'Ah' Singh out of his head.

_Chapter One_

"And Captain Rajveer will support me."

Those words haunted him even now when he was possibly about to die.

God knows he had tried to stop loving her. He had thought that after she told him she didn't love him it would become easier, but it had just became worse. Dreaming of her, he would wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. Instead of being thankful that she didn't love him, he started thinking of ways he could make her fall in love with him.

But the eyes of the entire academy were on them, and the only reason they weren't under suspicion was because Dr Mishra had saved them.

He tried to behave normally with Naina again, but it was difficult when he knew everyone was watching them. It was even more difficult when he couldn't keep his own damn heart under control.

He was sure that Dr Shalini had guessed the truth, but she was doing her best to pretend that she didn't know. Dr Shalini knew that Raj's feelings for Naina would be disastrous, so she had tried to convince him to accept Dr Mishra, even as his own heart was breaking. While he tried to ignore his feelings for Naina, he also had to deal with Huda trying to win her over, and Dr Mishra trying to convince Raj of her own love. It was almost too much for him to bear.

Finally the 26th of January had arrived and he had faced his biggest test of all, to sit with her parents and pretend that everything was normal. It was easy enough at first, he only had to introduce himself. But then Naina had smiled at him and even while he smiled back and her parents looked on, he couldn't stop the guilt that was building up inside him.

'Yes, they're smiling at you right now' he told himself, 'they respect you as their daughter's mentor. But if they really knew what lay in your heart, what thoughts run through your head about their daughter, then they'd be slapping you instead.' He was almost glad when Dr Mishra arrived, and Naina's mother left the room hurriedly, just so that he could leave them before he broke under the pressure of trying to pretend he wasn't doing anything wrong.

Then he had heard the words.

"And Captain Rajveer will support me."

There was so much trust in them, she knew that he'd never leave her, that he'd fight for her until the very end. But how could he when what he really wanted would ruin her life?

How could he support her when if she knew the truth about him, she'd never want to see his face again?

And now it had come to that. Naina knew the truth, that he'd killed her brother. And she hated him, he was sure of it. In the end she she'd shot him in a moment of blind fury, unable to resist the years of anger his revelation had released.

The bullet hadn't stopped them from taking the triggers to safety and once the rest of the cadets had arrived they had been able to do so. Now Dr Mishra had been taken into custody and he was about to be taken to hospital but he didn't know if it would be too late or not.

Raj had lost a lot of blood and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open, he felt like he was becoming delirious.

As they loaded him into the ambulance he called out suddenly, "Wait, please, I want to talk to Naina first."

She came to him reluctantly, with a look on her face that said she'd rather be somewhere far away from him but she bent down to hear his words anyway.

"Naina," he whispered, "I'm so sorry, I should've told you before now but I didn't want to lose you…I…" he stopped himself before it was too late, it was far better if she didn't know.

"Naina, I know I don't have the right to expect anything of you, but I hope you'll forgive me one day. Believe me that I never wanted to kill Navin, that it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I hope you can forgive me some day."

He saw Aalekh watching them, his face blank, but Raj was sure that he understood. Aalekh had always said little and understood much.

Naina was silent, and a hundred emotions crossed her face as she gazed down at him. The medics moved to load his stretcher into the ambulance.

Finally Naina spoke. "Sir," she said, "It'll take me some time."

They shut the ambulance doors then and he could no longer see her, but Raj couldn't stop himself from giving a small sigh of relief. He could wait.

/

In the four days before they went on vacation, almost every cadet in the academy visited Captain Rajveer in hospital – every cadet except one.

Raj had been hoping that Naina would come to see him. It didn't matter to him if she screamed at him, or still hated him, he just wanted a chance to talk to her and to try to explain himself again. But the holidays began, the cadets all left for home and Naina never came.

/

Naina tried to enjoy the two weeks she would have with her parents, but her thoughts and emotions would not allow her to. She kept thinking about _him_. For the first four days her thoughts were filled with anger; she hated him, pure and simple. She hated him so much, firstly for what he'd done to her brother, and then for trying to make her forgive him when he might have been dying. She knew he was fine now, and recovering. She'd asked Dr Shalini and when she'd heard he would survive she hadn't known whether to feel relieved or disappointed.

But by the fifth day her hate was beginning to lessen, and she began to think about why it had happened. Why had her brother asked Rajveer Sir to kill him? Didn't he have any hope left? Rajveer Sir had told her that while there is breath, there is hope, and while there is hope a soldier continues to fight. Despite her Navin Bhaiyya still having breath he had lost his hope and stopped fighting.

She thought of it over and over again, if she had been Captain Rajveer then what else could she have done in that situation? How could she have saved Navin? She came up with dozens of solutions, none of which would have actually worked. By the tenth day she realised that her emotions had changed. She no longer hated Captain Rajveer, in fact she pitied him for the choice he had been forced to make.

Her parents were confused by Naina's silence. She wandered around the house as if she was lost, not speaking a word but often stopping with a look on her face like she was concentrating hard or puzzled.

"Kya hua, beti?" They would ask her, "Koi pareshani hai?"

"Nahin Ma, Nahin Baba." Naina would say, and remind herself to behave normally.

Naina thought about telling her parents the truth about her brother's death, but she could not bring herself to. There was so much they still didn't know about why Dr Mishra had trapped him, and she knew that while she had finally forgiven Rajveer Sir for what he had done, her parents would never be able to. She could not name the exact reason, but she just wasn't ready for them to find out the truth.

When the time came to return to the academy, Naina was finally ready to see Captain Rajveer again. She knew what she had to tell him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Raj had been expecting Naina to avoid him when she came back to the academy, the last thing he expected when he heard a knock on his door was to find her standing there.

"Naina?" He began hesitantly, "Would you like to come in?"

"Thank you, sir." She replied quietly.

"Please, sit down," Raj requested her, "Do you want anything? Chai, coffee, water…"

"No, sir." Naina interrupted him, "I'm perfectly fine."

Trying to hide his nervousness, he sat down in the chair opposite her.

"Sir, I need to talk to you," she began, fumbling over the words slightly, "I did a lot of thinking in the holidays and I've come to a decision."

He stayed silent, waiting for her to announce his fate.

"I've forgiven you, sir. I understand why you had to do what you did. I don't know if we'll ever be as close as we were again though, I've lost my trust in you and I don't know how I could ever regain it."

Raj felt like he had regained a lost treasure when he heard her state her forgiveness. It meant that she finally must have understood why he had to kill Navin.

"I understand you didn't want to kill my brother, that you didn't have any choice." Naina paused and thought for a second, "But sir, that doesn't change the fact that you lied to me about it and that you tried to stop me finding out. I trusted you!" Tears came to Naina's eyes as she spoke. "You were the only one that I trusted, the only one that I thought would always tell me the truth, and now I don't know how to do that anymore."

"Naina, I'm so sorry that I lied to you. I didn't want you to know the truth because I knew how you'd react, that you wouldn't trust me anymore. And I didn't want that because," Raj stopped, he couldn't tell her the truth, it would be better if she never found out how he felt for her. "Because we still didn't know the whole truth about Navin's death. I wanted to find out who trapped him first." It was not the best excuse he'd ever thought of, but it was partially true. "I always intended to tell you, I just needed it to be at the right time."

Naina nodded her head, as if she understood. "I know, Sir, but things will be different between us from now on, you can't expect me to treat you in the same way as I used to."

"I understand Naina, but please know that I'm always here to support you, whatever it is that you need."

Naina nodded sadly, and stood to go.

"Wait, Naina." Raj suddenly stopped her. "How did your parents react when they found out the truth?"

She turned around, her hand on the doorframe. "They didn't, Sir. I thought it was best not to tell them." She smiled at him sadly and was gone.

So Naina had lost her trust in him. Raj would do anything to get it back, anything at all. He could never expect her to love him, but it was important to him that she could rely on him, come to him for help. She would never do that if she didn't trust him.

He would've gladly died to regain her trust, so what was the harm in sacrificing his one chance of happiness for it?

/

Two days later, Naina was surprised to see Captain Rajveer leaving KMA in his dress uniform.

"Sir?" She called out, and he turned around in surprise. "Where are you going?"

Raj just smiled at her sadly, "I'll be back soon, Cadet Singh."

"I wonder where Rajveer Sir is going?" She asked Pooja as the two headed to the mess for breakfast.

Pooja just shrugged. "Maybe his outgoing was necessary."

Naina smiled at her friend's funny way of explaining it. Maybe Pooja was right, Captain Rajveer must have had some important work.

/

It was mid morning by the time Raj arrived at Naina's home town. The entire drive there he had been practicing what he would say.

There was only one way that he could think of to win back Naina's trust and that was to prove to her how truly sorry he was about her brother's death. That he was willing to be punished for it, in whatever way was fitting.

And so he was going to tell her parents the truth.

He knew they would never forgive him, and he knew that if he did this he would never have a chance at any type of relationship with Naina, no matter how long he waited.

But what chance did he have anyway if she couldn't trust him or place her faith in him?

He was going to sacrifice his reputation and his happiness in order to win back her friendship, because he needed to have her in his life, in whatever form possible. If the only way to have her stay in his life was as a friend then he would have to deal with that. Even if every single day his heart would ache for her, even if he could never love anybody except her.

Gathering his courage, Raj knocked on the door of the Ahluwalia house.

"Arre, aap?" Naina's father greeted him cheerfully when he opened the door. "Come in, beta."

"Yes, sir."

And Raj went inside to complete his mission.

/

Two hours later after telling them everything he knew about Navin's death and about his role in it, a deathly silence filled the house.

"You killed my son," Naina's mother suddenly spoke. "He was innocent, and you killed him."

Raj's heart was breaking as he heard the pain and the tears in her voice, the same heartbreak he had experienced when he told Naina the truth.

Finally Naina's father spoke. "I want to thank you for telling us the truth."

Raj was shocked, could Naina's father actually forgive him?

The next words jolted him out of his dream.

"You have brought closure to us in telling us the truth, but you took our only son from us, took away any chance that he would ever be returned to us, and that I can never forgive. We would like you to leave now."

So that was it, he had completed his duty, but he would never be forgiven by them.

Tears came to Raj's eyes but he hid them well, just as he'd learned to do.

"I'm sorry sir, ma'am, I'll take your leave now."

The door slammed shut behind him.

/

All day Naina had been wondering where Rajveer Sir had gone, wishing that she'd had a chance to find out.

"Why are you so worried?" she asked herself, "He has his own life, it's not your business where he goes to." But she still couldn't help worrying after the look she'd seen on his face this morning.

Naina restlessly glanced at her watch for the third time in five minutes as Lolita Ma'am droned on about some historical facts that only Ali ever seemed to find interesting. She was counting down the minutes until the class ended so that she could go and see if Captain Rajveer had arrived back yet. Lolita Ma'am's class was the last of the day, so after this she would be free to try to check. The thought annoyed her, why was she thinking about him so much? Even if he was in some trouble then why should she be worried? He was the man who had killed her brother, the man who had lied to her for months when she had trusted him.

But as much as she tried to, she couldn't hate him. Instead when she thought about him a confusion filled her heart and she couldn't decide what it was she felt about him. Not hate, but not…No, never that.

The bell finally rang and Naina raced out of the classroom, ignoring Pooja's calls to wait. She was heading towards Captain Rajveer's office when an orderly stopped her.

"Cadet Naina Singh? You have a call."

Naina felt annoyed at the disturbance to her plans, but nodded at the orderly anyway and headed towards the phone.

"Hello?" she said, picking it up.

"Naina beti." It was her father's voice.

"Baba, how are you? Has something happened?"

"We need to talk to you about something serious, Naina." Her father continued.

"Sure, Baba, what is it?" Naina answered, trying to sound relaxed but feeling more and more nervous with every second. It couldn't be….

"I never thought you would hide something so big from us, beti." Her father said, disappointment clear in his voice.

"I don't understand, what have I hidden from you?" She prayed to god that her parents hadn't found out the truth somehow, but how could they have, unless…

"You found out who killed your brother and you never told us? Why did you hide it from us, Naina? Why didn't you tell us it was Captain Rajveer?"

It was at that moment that he walked through the entrance to KMA and Naina saw him. Her eyes met his and suddenly it all made sense, why he'd left early in the morning, why he had looked at her so sadly.

The phone fell from her hand, hitting against the side of the desk with a thud.

She was vaguely aware of the sound of her father's voice on the other end of the line.

Naina stared at Captain Rajveer in shock. Why had he told her parents that it was him? Didn't he know that even though she had forgiven him, they never would? Didn't he care that they hated him now?

Rajveer stared back at Naina, not sure why she was looking at him with such shock in her eyes, and then he spotted the phone hanging loosely by its cord. In a few short steps he reached Naina's side, picked up the phone and put it back into her hands, his fingers briefly brushing hers.

Then he walked quickly away.

"Baba…" Naina said so softly it was almost a whisper.

"Naina, where were you? I've been calling out to you."  
"Baba, I'm sorry, I never meant to…"

"It's alright Naina, we don't blame you. We know that you must have been trying to protect us from the truth. But listen to me, it's better if you stay away from Captain Rajveer from now on, keep your distance from him."

Her father said goodbye and hung up the phone while Naina was left staring blankly at the receiver.

How wrong her father was, Captain Rajveer's action would not push her further away, it had brought back her lost trust in him. He had sacrificed his own reputation and honour in order to tell her parents the truth that they had wanted to know for years.

Suddenly Naina felt like crying, unable to figure out why. What difference did it make if her parents knew? Didn't they deserve to? And why had she hidden it from them in the first place?

Was it that she didn't want them to know because…because she hadn't wanted them to hate the Captain, but why? What was the reason for that?

Suddenly Naina wasn't so sure that she wanted to know the answer to that question.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Naina burst into Captain Rajveer's office without knocking, but when he looked up there was no surprise on his face, only a strange type of resignation.

"Sir…" She started to say, but couldn't work out what should come next.

He smiled sadly, as if perfectly understanding how she was feeling right now.

"You want to ask why I went there, right?" he asked, and she nodded silently.

He sighed. "Naina, I had to go there. And not just for you. It was important for me to know that I can be someone you can trust. How could I ever meet your parents again knowing that they didn't know the truth, that they think I'm something I'm not?"

"But sir, now they know and…"

"And they hate me, I know."

Naina was still standing by the door, unable to quite find the courage to come completely inside the room. She was afraid that if she went any closer to Rajveer, she would be able to see the look in his eyes properly and she didn't know what she would find there.

So many emotions were struggling in her chest and she couldn't decide what to say to him. His actions had changed everything between them, partly for the better and partly for the worse. Finally, she found her voice.

"Sir, what you did today means a lot to me, but…" she trailed off and suddenly saw the look in his eyes. He seemed as if he was quietly drowning in despair, like he had lost something that he could never regain. "But I wish it didn't have to be that way."

"Naina, whether your parents forgive me or not, I hope that you'll be able to think of me as your friend, and that from now on if you need any help or support you'll know that you can come to me."

"Of course, Sir. I know that it will never be like it was before, but you have a place in my life that can't be replaced by anybody else."

They stared at each other for a moment, both wanting to say something else but not able to.

"Ahh… shall I leave, sir?"

"I'll see you later, Cadet Singh."

And as Naina walked quietly out and closed the door behind her, Rajveer placed his head in his hands and struggled not to cry.

/

In the next week Naina tried to concentrate on her studies and do her best in the drills, but the thought kept nagging at the back of her mind. Why was she so disturbed about what Rajveer Sir had done?

Now when she saw him or talked to him it was better than it had been, but there was still a strange type of awkwardness between them that she didn't know how to clear.

Naina had been so quiet lately that even her friends had noticed it.

"Oy Naina, what's wrong with you? Has your signal gotten jammed somewhere?" Pooja asked her when they had returned to their room after the last drill before getting changed for dinner.

"I don't know Pooja, I think I just have to work some things out myself."

"That's okay yaar, just let me know when your talktime is back to normal and I'll be here."

Heading downstairs to dinner, Naina was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice who was next to her in the line for food until she bumped into him.

"Careful, Cadet Singh," she heard a familiar warm voice tell her.

"Sir…" she started and then trailed off as she met his eyes. She had been avoiding him until she worked out her feelings and now that she was standing this close to him… Naina realised that his hand was still on her arm from where he had steadied her.

"Uh, I'm sorry Sir, I guess I was so hungry that I didn't look where I was going."

He smiled down at her, and then suddenly realising that he was still holding her arm he hurriedly removed his hand.

"So what do you think Cadet Singh, will tonight's food be too salty, too sweet, too hard or too soft?" Raj joked.

"You can never tell, Sir," she replied, a smile coming to her face. "After all, Suriji is back in the mess. At least it's not as bad as when Lolitaji was in charge, then you couldn't even tell it was food at all."

Raj grinned and finished serving his food.

"Enjoy your dinner, Cadet Singh," he told her, and moved away to sit at a table with Dr Shalini.

Naina had to stop herself from staring after him, she had to get a grip on herself before she did something embarrassing. She had to work out what her feelings for him actually were. She couldn't believe that in such a short space in time her feelings had gone from respect and trust, to hatred and distrust, back to trust and friendship and possibly…love.

There, she had said it to herself. But if she was in love with him then when had it happened and how had it happened?

"Oy Phoolan, move it." She heard Huda's voice behind her and realised she was blocking everybody's access to the food.

Taking her plate, she sought out Aalekh who was sitting in a corner by himself eating his food. Aalekh had always understood her even more than she understood herself, surely he could help her work out the answer to this problem. Aalekh had been the only one she had told the truth about her brother's death to, knowing that he at least would understand.

Naina slid into the seat opposite Aalekh and he looked up from his plate, nodding at her in acknowledgement.

"Aalekh, I want to ask you something," Naina said to him in a low tone, not wanting anyone else to hear.

"Tu bol, I'm listening."

"Now before I ask you this, I want you to give me a completely honest answer. Just tell me exactly what you think."

Aalekh nodded and took another bite of his food.

"Aalekh, have I fallen in love?"

Unfortunately Naina asked him just as he had started chewing his food and Aalekh was so shocked he started choking on the potato he had been eating. The whole room turned around to look at them, and Naina hurriedly got up to pat Aalekh on the back until he calmed down.

Finally when he had stopped coughing, Aalekh looked up at her seriously. "Bole to, should we go outside to talk about this?"

Naina nodded. "Finish your dinner and we'll go for a walk."

She ate her dinner as quickly as she could without risking choking herself and then signalled to Aalekh that they should leave. If she had turned around while going out the door then she would've seen Captain Rajveer's eyes on her, with a strange mix of sorrow and longing in them.

Naina might not have seen, but Dr Shalini certainly did. She sighed on seeing the look on his face and muttered under her breath, "Here we go again."

"Huh?" Raj asked her, jolted out of his daze. "Did you say something, Shalini?"

"Me? Never." She said, rolling her eyes, "Why would I need to say anything when everything is going on right in front of me?"

Raj gave her a sad smile, he knew that out of all the faculty members here, Shalini was the only one who understood him, and the only one who had guessed about his feelings for Naina.

"So Doctor… what were we talking about?" he asked, trying to change the topic before things got too serious.

Shalini knew that now wasn't the time to press Raj and let him change the subject, there was nothing she could do for now.

/

Meanwhile, Naina and Aalekh had left the mess and made their way to a bench by the lake.

"Tell me, Aalekh, have I fallen in love?"

Aalekh just shook his head at her in disbelief. "Why are you asking me? Ask yourself."

Naina sighed and began tracing designs on the bench with her finger.

"I know, Aalekh, I should know myself, but it's all just so confusing. My feelings have changed so much in the last few months and I just can't figure it out. Because if I'm in love then I shouldn't be in love…I can't be in love…"

"Dekh, Naina, nobody can stop themselves from falling in love, it just happens."

"I know, but it shouldn't have happened, and I can't work out how it happened or when…"

"It happened a long time ago."

"What?" Naina asked him, shocked.

"You just didn't realise it until now." 

"But does that mean that you know who I'm talking about?"

He gave her a look of frustration. "Naina I'm not stupid, I might not say much but I see everything. It happened to you a long time back, I've known since then."

"But I never…"

"Naina, tu apun ka best friend hai, I know you, and you've loved your Sir for a long time now."

Naina just stared at Aalekh in shock, unable to believe that he'd guessed the truth, and that too before she'd managed to understand her own feelings. He really did know her better than she knew herself.

"Then that day when I wanted to know why he was being so rude to me, when you said that he thought I loved him…"

"I knew that you hadn't worked it out, so I didn't think it would hurt to tell you that." Aalekh paused, and thought carefully about what he wanted to say next. "But bole to, maybe I had told you the wrong reason that day."

"Meaning?"

"Maybe I should have said it the other way around."

Naina waited for him to say more but he stood there looking at her with expectation on his face until she finally worked it out.

"No," she finally said, shocked, "Rajveer Sir doesn't love me."

"No?"

"He's just done things for me because I was his best friend's sister, maybe even because he felt guilty for my brother's death, but not because…"

She turned to Aalekh, horrified at the thought, "He can't love me, if he loved me then why did he tell my parents the truth? They'll never accept him now."

Aalekh stepped closer to Naina and placed his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "Could someone who didn't love you have done something like that?"

Suddenly everything made sense to her; what had happened during the mentorship program and on the camp, his behaviour towards her afterwards when he had distanced himself, his visit to her parents house.

"No…" she whispered to herself, even as she accepted that everything Aalekh said was true.

"Bole to," Aalekh started, "This is a bit too filmi isn't it? Just like one if those rohna dohna serials."

And he was absolutely right. Because in the land of Mirza and Sahiben, who would ever forgive a girl who loved her brother's killer?

/

Pooja was talking on the phone to her mother when Naina entered the room, shaken from her conversation with Aalekh.

"No Mummy, I don't want to meet the boy….No I'm not interested…Believe me I don't care about Rohit anymore but… Ma, I want to choose my own husband!" She stopped and looked up at Naina who had slumped down on her bed after closing the door.

"Achha Mummy, I have to go, my room mate Naina is back…I think she needs some talktime …No do NOT say yes to the boy's parents! Achcha, bye Mummy."

Pooja turned to Naina with a concerned look in her eyes, she had known for awhile now that something wasn't right and seeing Naina disappear with Aalekh after dinner had confirmed her suspicions.

"Naina what's up? And don't tell me that your network is fine, because I can see for myself that it needs some maintenance."

Naina smiled slightly at that but still slumped further down the headboard of her bed until she was lying down.

"Leave it Pooja, that was your mother on the phone wasn't it? Is there some problem?"

Pooja shook her head in amazement looking at her friend, "Kamal hai, I'm trying to get your talktime going and here you're asking for some incoming."

"Pooja you've always been there for me with my problems, why don't you tell me about yours for once."

Pooja sighed, well maybe if she told Naina about her own problem then Naina would open up about hers. "My mother wants me to get married, and I just don't know how to tell her that I've already made my connection with Ali. How's she going to react?"

Naina looked at Pooja thoughtfully. "You really love Ali, don't you?"

"Haan," Pooja answered dreamily, "My lifetime connection is with him. I can't even think about making my plan with anyone else."

"Then what's the problem?"

"We're afraid that our families won't accept our relationship. You know, because I'm Sikh and he's Muslim. How can we make them understand that sometimes different networks go well together?" Pooja sighed, clearly unhappy with being unable to tell her family and not knowing whether they would accept her choice of husband or not.

"I'm so sorry, Pooja," Naina said regretfully, "I really haven't been around to support you lately have I?"

"It's okay, Naina. I know that your network gets jammed sometimes because of your own problems, but what matters is that we're friends." The two girls hugged, happy that at least they had somebody who was there to support them.

"So, uh, Pooja…." Naina started, not quite sure how to ask what she wanted to.

"Kya hai, Naina?"

"Pooja how did you know that you loved Ali?"

"Well it took a long time for me to realise it," Pooja said with a giggle, "He's so shy you know, so he never flirted with me or let me know how he felt. But Ali was always there for me, always supporting me. I could talk to him about anything. And slowly I realised that I loved him and I didn't want to be with anyone except him."

A smile came to Naina's face. "Wow Pooja, I think that's the first time I've heard you speak without using any mobile terms, it must be love."

Pooja giggled again. "I think it's Ali's influence, maybe I'll start talking like him eventually."

The two girls had a good laugh over that before Pooja became serious again.

"So why did you want to know Naina? Bas yuhi, or…" and then suddenly her eyes widened as she looked at the sadness and worry on Naina's face. "Hai Rabba, you're in love aren't you?"

And for the first time, Naina didn't want to deny it.

/

Pooja looked at her room mate in amazement, not believing that she'd been hiding it for so long. "With who, Naina?" Pooja started considering the options, "Not with Huda?"

Naina just shook her head, tears coming to her eyes "I wish it would've been Huda, it would be so much easier than this…"

"Then who…" Pooja's question trailed off as she mentally crossed off the options within her mind, 'Not Huda, not Ali, not Yudi, not Aalekh. No…then…' Suddenly her eyes widened in astonishment, "Hai Rabba! Your connection is with Shahrukh isn't it?"

Naina just nodded her head slowly, not trusting herself to say anything at the moment. She just wanted to sob into her pillow and pretend that none of this was happening.

"Par…problem kya hai? I mean I know he's our teacher, but he won't be forever. We've only got a little bit more than a year here in the academy. Or is it because you don't know if he also wants to make a connection with you?"

"Pooja if that was the only problem then I could handle it, I could wait for him…" And saying it out loud, Naina realised that it was true. "I don't know how he feels about me, but I think that he feels the same way I do… the problem is something else."

"Dekh Naina, I know that usually you limit your outgoing, but if you tell me what the problem is then maybe I can help."

Naina began to cry then, quietly sobbing as the tears slipped down her cheeks. Pooja couldn't believe Naina was in such a state, she'd never seen her cry before. Immediately she came and sat next to Naina on her bed, putting a comforting arm around her.

"Please, Naina, whatever it is I'll be able to understand, it's not like Ali's and my relationship is easy. I'll try to help you work it out."

And taking a deep breath, Naina wiped the tears off her cheeks and told Pooja everything.

In all the time Naina had known her, it was the first time that Pooja was truly speechless. She would open her mouth as if to say something, and then would close it again. This happened about three times until Pooja finally got a grip on herself and was able to talk.

"And I thought Ali and I had problems…"

She might not have meant it to, but the comment at least made Naina laugh a bit. "Chalo, at least my problems have helped make yours seem a little smaller."

But Pooja didn't laugh with her, she was deep in thought, focused on a solution for Naina. Finally she spoke. "Naina, what do you want?"

"I want to be with him…but Ma and Baba…it's just not possible."

"No Naina, I don't want you to think about your Ma and Baba, I want you to think about what you want. If you really and truly want to be with him then after that you can work out what to do about your parents."

"But I can't break their trust, I'm their only child left…after Navin's death they've trusted me to do what's right. If I decide to be with him then they'll never forgive me!" Naina wasn't able to stop her tears this time, after everything that had happened to her, it was all just too much.

"Naina, it's your life, and you're the one who has to live it, not your parents."

Naina finally looked up at Pooja, shocked by her words.

Pooja continued. "You're thinking about what your parents would want, but what about what Navin would want for you? Wouldn't he want you to be happy?"

It was the first time that Naina had considered this question. She had thought about what her parents would want and what she wanted but she hadn't thought about what Navin would've wanted…

He would've understood her, he would've given her his blessings.

"You're right, Pooja." She finally replied. "I never thought about what Navin bhaiyya would want for me…"

"Chal, now put yourself on sleep mode and we'll deal with it in the morning." Pooja said and lay down on her own bed.

But it was a long time before Naina went to sleep and even then it was a restless night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

-tap- -tap- -tap-

At 3am, Naina was awoken by a light tapping on her door, just loud enough to shake her out of her slumber. Naina stumbled out of bed and towards the light switch, she had barely slept at all due to worrying about her situation. As Naina turned the light on, Pooja woke up complaining.

"Whose missed call is it? I was on sleep mode and now they're ringing the alarm?"

Naina just shrugged, "I don't know Pooja, let's see who it is."

By now Pooja was fully awake and when Naina didn't react after opening the door but just stood there staring she became curious, "Arre who is it, baba?"

This was enough to shake Naina out of her trance. "Sir?"

Captain Rajveer stood in front of her, breathing hard as if he'd run to her room and was trying to catch his breath. His hair was messy as if he'd only just woken up and not bothered to comb it and his shirt was tucked half inside of his jeans and half outside of it.

"Naina," he finally said, catching his breath. "I'm sorry I'm disturbing you so late, but I've got to tell you something."

Naina glanced back at Pooja who was now sitting up in bed and looking at them both curiously.

"Ah, Pooja is here too, Sir." She told him, hoping that what he was about to say wasn't anything too personal.

Raj looked over her shoulder and into the room, where Pooja gave him a small wave, "Hi Sir," she said brightly. "I was wondering what sms was arriving in our inbox so late at night but since it's you, we're happy to recharge."

"I'm very sorry that I've disturbed your sleep, Cadet Ghai," Raj told her sincerely, "I promise this will only take a minute and then you can go back to bed."

"Sure, Sir."

Naina glanced into the hallway, worried that Lolita Ma'am might wake up if they kept talking there.

"Uh, why don't you come in, Sir?"

Raj nodded, and came into the room. "I know I shouldn't be coming to see you so late at night, but it's important that I leave right now, and I wanted to tell you before I left."

Naina was taken aback, she hadn't known what to expect when Captain Rajveer had turned up at her door, but this…

"Leaving, Sir? Where are you going? And at this time of night?" she asked, worriedly.

"You know that Dr Mishra has been in army custody. Well they've finally worked out a deal with her and she's willing to talk."

"A deal?"

"Yes, she's to be given a new identity, serve a prison sentence and then be released."

Naina didn't know how she felt about that, on one hand she wanted the woman to be punished, and on the other, if she was going to confess about who had trapped her brother…

"And so you're going there now, Sir?"

"Yes, she said that she would only speak to me." He paused, looking closely at Naina's face and seeing the war of emotions there. "I know you don't want her to receive any mercy, but if we can find the people who trapped Navin…" Carefully he grasped Naina's shoulders with his hands before continuing. "I promise you, Naina, that I'll come back to you only when every single one of them has been arrested."

He let go of her shoulders then and turned to leave when Naina called out. "Sir…"

Raj turned around to see her looking at him with a concerned expression, something in her eyes that he couldn't quite read.

"Just…be careful." She told him, "I'll be waiting for you to come back."

He nodded once, and stepped out of the room closing the door behind him.

Naina wished she'd had the courage to hug him before he left, or to tell him something more than 'be careful', but she wasn't ready to yet and it was hardly the time with Pooja there too. She stood in the middle of the room looking lost and staring at the door he had just gone out of. She could still feel the warmth on her shoulders where his hands had rested.

Pooja understood how her friend was feeling and came over to Naina. Putting an arm around her shoulders, Pooja guided her back to her bed. "Don't worry Naina, nothing can happen to Rajveer Sir. He'll complete his mission and then come back to you. Now lie down and let's go to sleep, don't forget that we have a drill in the morning." She turned out the light and climbed into her own bed.

Naina closed her eyes, but she couldn't get Captain Rajveer's words out of her mind. "I'll come back to you…" he had said.

"Just let him be safe," she whispered, scared as she knew how dangerous the people who had trapped her brother were. "Let him come back to me."

And finally, exhausted by all the emotional turmoil she had experienced that day, she fell asleep.

/

Raj had driven to headquarters in record time, unable to wait any longer for his questions to be answered. It had taken a long time for Ritu Mishra to finally crack, and today she would tell him who had been behind Navin's death.

Quickly he passed the security checks before heading down to her cell.

It didn't take long for him to reach the basement where she was being held, especially as he'd hurried the whole way. Before he entered, Colonel Shakti briefed him. "Be careful, Captain, she's a very intelligent woman. Make sure that you get the information out of her without falling into any traps."

Raj nodded, he had waited long enough for this day, practicing what he would say to her if he ever got the chance, thinking about the questions that he needed to ask. After this final warning he was allowed into the cell, the guards closing the door quickly after him.

"So, Captain…" she said the last word with utter contempt, "You've finally come to see me."

She looked vastly different to how she had the last time he saw her, and even more different to her usual image before that. The feminine saris were gone, replaced by a prisoner's outfit. Her hair was no longer perfectly groomed and there was no makeup on her face. She looked washed out and tired, the combination of a lack of sunlight and rest. Looking at her, he realised how much of a mask her previous appearance had been to conceal the truth of what she really was.

"Yes I have, Dr Mishra," he told her, perfectly calm. "Or should I be calling you something else?"

"No," she replied, "I completed the degree in psychiatry, I deserve the title. And besides, does it really matter what my real name is?"

"Not really," he agreed, "I'm far more interested in the other names that you can tell me."

"Oh, did you really think that you'd get them that easily from me?" She was toying with him now, trying to win even when she'd already lost.

"Well, I was told that you were ready to make a deal, if that's not the case, then maybe I should go…"

Ritu rolled her eyes, "Hold it, Captain, there's no need to get uptight about it. If I'm going to tell you everything you want to know, then the very least you can do is play the game for awhile."

"Fine, Dr Mishra, I'm ready to play, what is it that you think I need to do before you'll tell me what I want to know?"

She smiled then, back in her element and knowing that he would keep her happy just to find out the information, it was the only way she had left to exert any power. All of her options were gone, and now the only way for her to survive was to make this deal.

"Why are you doing this, Captain? For your country, for your friend, or for…" She trailed off at the last sentence, smiling at him mockingly.

"I promised myself that I would uncover the truth of Navin's death, no matter what happened. After everything you did to him, at least you can help to prove his innocence."

She laughed, a bitter, angry laugh. "Oh is that right, or is it that you're looking for redemption? Trying to absolve yourself of his death. Or is it because you want his little sister to forgive you?"

The last thing that Raj wanted was for her to start talking about things like that here, while his superior officers were listening to the conversation. He had to bring this discussion back to the topic it was meant to be about.

"Cadet Singh has already forgiven me, Dr Mishra, and I've also forgiven myself. Now it's just a matter of finding out the truth."

She was genuinely surprised to hear this, staring at him in shock. "She's forgiven you? How could she? I thought that she'd never forgive you after finding out."

Raj shrugged, trying to look casual but disturbed by this turn in the conversation. "In the end she knew that it was the people behind this conspiracy that were really responsible for his death, not me." He needed to get Ritu off this topic as soon as possible, before she revealed something she shouldn't. He looked directly into Ritu's eyes, trying to judge whether she was going to really give him the truth or not. "Now, if you can give me that information I know that Naina would appreciate it as well. So how about it?"

"And then what, you both can live happily ever after while I rot in jail? What type of a deal is that?"

"It's an excellent deal. You're not going to be executed, which is what usually happens to spies, and you'll receive a new identity so that you can't be tracked down by those who want to kill you."

She regarded him curiously for a minute, looking him over thoroughly, before settling back in her chair with a small smile on her face.

"Do you know where it was I failed, Captain?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

He inclined his head and gestured with one hand to tell her to continue speaking.

"I couldn't make you fall in love with me."

He realised the truth in her words. It was how she had trapped Navin, making him so blinded that he couldn't realise the web that she was spinning for him. By the time he had worked it out it had been far too late.

"That's true, Dr Mishra, I'm quite thankful that you weren't able to."

"Now," she paused, leaning over the table so that her face is closer to his, "I wonder why that was."

He knew what she was implying, she wanted to make him lose his temper by her references to Naina, but he was not going to give in.

"I've never been particularly attracted to women who look a little too perfect." He told her with a humorous smile. It was only partially a lie, women such as Dr Mishra have always intimidated him. It had been the simplicity of Naina's beauty that had attracted him to her. For him, one of her smiles was far more lovely than anything in the world. He had been amazed that she could look beautiful even after falling into a pool of mud, simply because she was able to laugh about it.

Dr Mishra looked at him, finally realising that he wasn't going to play the game the way she wanted him to. She had nothing left to lose, and really this deal was the best she could possibly expect. The people who had employed her would kill her if they got their hands on her, so why should she feel any loyalty to them? It had never been about an ideology for her, she had always done this simply because it was her job, and because she would benefit from it.

"Fine, Captain," she told him "Then let's begin…"

/

Naina sat in the mess the next day trying to eat her food, but in reality just pushing it around her plate with a fork. She couldn't stop thinking about what might be happening right now, about when Captain Rajveer would come back safe, having accomplished his mission.

She had told the rest of her friends what had happened, and where Rajveer had gone. They looked at her sympathetically, knowing how she must be feeling.

"You have to eat something, Naina," Pooja told her, "Or else, your battery will become low."

Naina just nodded and put a fork full of food into her mouth, concentrating on chewing and swallowing it.

"Cadet Naina Singh," an orderly came to the table, "You have a phone call."

Naina didn't even need to ask who it was, she knew that it would be Captain Rajveer. She got up so suddenly from the table that her chair almost fell over, and set off at a run towards the phone.

"Hello," she said breathlessly into the receiver once she reached it.

"Naina, it's me."

"What happened, Sir? Are you alright?" More than worrying about proving her brother's innocence, she had been worried about what would happen to Captain Rajveer. She wouldn't be able to handle it if the same people who trapped her brother… no, she wasn't even going to think about it.

"I'm perfectly fine, Naina," On the other end of the phone, Raj smiled, it was nice to know that Naina was worried about him. "Dr Mishra has recorded her full confession, it took about six hours, but we now know everything she could tell us."

"That's wonderful, Sir!" Naina was overjoyed, finally the stain from her brother's name would be removed and those responsible would be brought to justice. "So are you coming back today?"

"Don't you remember my promise, Naina? I said that I would only return when every single person involved had been arrested."

Naina remembered the night before, his words in her room as he had held her shoulders.

"And I promise, Naina, nobody will escape punishment this time."

Naina choked back her tears, not wanting him to know how deeply his words affected her. "I know Sir, I trust you. Just make sure that you come back safe and sound, as soon as possible." She paused then, not sure what she should say next. "I'll be waiting for you."

She thought she could feel him smiling on the end of the line. "Then I'll come back as soon as possible." He said, and hung up the phone.

/

Four more days passed and there was no word from Captain Rajveer. Naina tried to keep busy to distract herself from worrying about what was happening. As hard as the drills were, at least they stopped her thinking about the situation for an hour or two. The rest of her friends tried to keep her spirits up, making sure that she ate enough food and finding ways to cheer her up during their free time.

Every moment, Naina wondered whether she would hear from him, and what he was doing. Every night she watched the news to see if there were any developments. She kept thinking of excuses to walk past the door to his room, but always saw the lock still there.

She was on her way to the mess for lunch when she heard two of the senior cadets talking.

"Hey Kamran, did you know that Captain Rajveer was back?"

"No, where'd he go anyway?"

"No idea, but I just saw him coming into the academy. He looked terrible."

That was enough for Naina, she immediately began running towards Captain Rajveer's room, not caring what the cadets who she pushed past on the way thought. She skidded to a stop outside his door, only managing to stop herself from falling down by catching her balance on a post. Seeing that the lock was gone, she opened the door without even knocking, knowing that he wouldn't mind.

"Sir…" she started, but stopped as soon as she saw him.

Raj sat slumped in one of the chairs, and the look on his face was one of pure exhaustion. He looked up as soon as he saw Naina come in, and some light briefly returned to his face as he smiled at her.

He tried to get to his feet, using the chair for support.

"We've done it, Naina, we've finally done it." He told her, "I was coming to tell you, as soon as I'd changed my clothes."

Naina looked at him, taking in his current condition. It was very clear that he had been in no state to go anywhere anytime soon.

Rajveer continued talking anyway. "The arrests will be made today and tomorrow, I wanted to be there for that, but they sent me home, they said I was…" suddenly, he began swaying on his feet and Naina rushed over to support him.

"Not now, Sir," she told him, while putting an arm around his waist to keep him upright. "You can tell me when you've had some rest. Anyway, when was the last time you slept?"

"I don't know… I… a couple of hours here and there."

"Meaning that you haven't slept properly since you left here?" Naina asked sternly. "Sir, you have to look after your health. I can't believe that you…" she stopped her lecture when she saw that his eyes were beginning to close. "Come on, Sir, you need to have some sleep first of all. I can wait to hear what happened." She began moving towards the bedroom with him.

Rajveer tried to protest but he was so exhausted that he eventually gave in and allowed Naina to take him to the other room. She made him sit on the bed and bent down to untie his shoes and take them off.

"Naina, I can…" he began to say.

"Leave it, Sir." She replied, pulling the first shoe off and starting on the second. "It's no problem."

His eyes were unfocused and she almost didn't hear him when he muttered "You only ever call me Sir…"

She looked up in surprise, he couldn't have just said… she decided to ignore it, it was obvious that he was so exhausted he had begun to become delirious.

Carefully she made him lie down on the bed and then began to pull the covers over him. As she lent down to adjust his pillow he suddenly opened his eyes, looking her straight in the face. Slowly he reached up a hand and touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers. Naina was so surprised that she stayed frozen in the same position, waiting for him to say something.

"God you're beautiful, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he whispered, "I would do anything for you, anything." His eyes closed and his hand fell down to his side as he passed out.

Naina was left standing in the same position, staring at him and wondering if it had really happened at all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Naina knew that she should leave, but instead she sat down cross-legged on the floor and watched him sleep. She was so relieved to have him back, and so happy that he had finally completed his mission that she couldn't bear to go just yet. She watched him sleeping, sprawled under the covers with one arm flung over the edge of the bed. Naina wished that she could run her fingers through his hair, smoothing it away from his face, and had to stop herself from getting up to do so. He looked so peaceful while he was dreaming, that she wanted to memorise his face this way while she had the opportunity.

-knock- -knock-

The sound broke Naina's reverie and she got up and headed towards the other room, stepping outside of the bedroom just as Dr Shalini stepped into Captain Rajveer's living room.

Shalini looked at her curiously, "What are you doing here, Cadet Singh?"

"Well, uh, ma'am," Naina felt her face beginning to flush red, embarrassed about being caught coming out of the Captain's bedroom no matter what the circumstances were. "I found out that Captain Rajveer was back, so I came to see him. But he was so exhausted that I felt he should sleep, so I took him to bed…" she trailed off, realising that this sounded even worse and that she should just stop before she said something even more stupid. "Uh, he's asleep." She finally finished lamely.

"Well that's excellent," Shalini said, relieved. "I was just coming to check on him, but if he's asleep then I'll let him be." Seeing the tense look on Naina's face she sighed, "Just relax, Cadet, I know that you were only helping him."

With this statement, Naina felt a bit less tense. "I don't think he's slept properly for four days, ma'am. I doubt he's eaten well either."

Shalini could hear the worry in Naina's voice, it was obvious that she cared deeply about Captain Rajveer.

"Well then he'll need some rest, Cadet, which means it's best that we leave him alone for awhile."

"But, ma'am…" Naina glanced back at the bedroom, clearly reluctant to go.

"Dekh, Naina… there's nothing you can do for him right now except for watching him sleep." By the blush on Naina's face, Shalini guessed that must have been exactly what she had been doing. "And although you've got a free period right now, if I'm not wrong then your class with Subedar Sen starts in fifteen minutes, and I don't think she'd want you to be late."

"Of course, ma'am." Naina said, glancing back once more towards the bedroom, "I'll just go now…."

"You can always come back after your lesson," Shalini told her kindly. "Just make sure you don't wake him up."

"Of course, ma'am, thank you."

Once Naina left, Shalini quietly went to the bedroom to check on Raj, but he seemed to be deeply asleep. Deciding that this was the best thing for him right now, she closed the door softly and left the room, heading back to her office.

She was sure that Naina would come back later, the look on the girl's face had clearly said that the last thing she wanted to do right then was leave.

Shalini had known about Raj's feelings for Naina for a long time now, ever since his solitary confinement, but today was the first time that she had suspected Naina might feel the same way. The look on the girl's face when Shalini had caught her coming out of the bedroom had been priceless.

"God help them…" she muttered under her breath as she entered her office. Society would never understand their relationship, as romance between a teacher and a student was simply unthinkable. But when it was obvious that they loved each other so much… Shalini decided that she would help them in whatever way she was able to, while ensuring that no boundaries were crossed.

/

The news had spread around the academy that Captain Rajveer was back after his unexplained absence, so when Naina turned up to class a few minutes early, her friends crowded around her, asking what had happened.

"He was successful," Naina told them quietly so that nobody else would hear. "But he couldn't tell me much because he was so exhausted. He's sleeping now, I'll find out more from him when he wakes up."

Just then Lolita ma'am arrived, and the cadets hurried to their seats, knowing how strict she was.

Lolita's class was the last of the day, and afterwards Naina quickly went to leave, wanting to return to Raj.

"Wait, Naina!" Pooja called out, and Naina reluctantly stopped. "Look, friend. I know you want to go check on your Shahrukh, but you didn't eat any lunch and if you don't eat dinner then you'll be in the same state he is."

Naina started to protest, but was stopped by Aalekh.

"Be quiet and come eat your dinner." He told her sternly, "After that you can go wherever you like."

"Yes, Sir!" Naina said with a smile and saluted him, rolling her eyes. "When did you get to be so bossy?"

"It's my right to be," he told her, smiling back. "Come to the mess as soon as you've gotten changed and get something to eat. Pooja, you make sure she does."

"Yes, Sir!" Pooja said seriously, following Naina's example and then led her friend towards their room.

Ali and Yudi had already left for their rooms, but Huda was still standing there with a strange look on his face.

"Yaar, don't you think she's a bit too concerned for Captain Rajveer?"

Aalekh fixed Huda with a threatening stare. "Look Huda, it's about time you stopped this."

"But I…"

"You what? You love her? If you really love her then you'll want her to be happy."

"And she wouldn't be happy with me?" Huda sounded hurt by what Aalekh was saying.

"No, she wouldn't." Aalekh replied simply. "You're not the one that she loves, Huda, and you never will be. If you want her to be happy then learn how to just be her friend instead."

He walked off, leaving Huda standing in the corridor with a shocked look on his face.

/

Naina had changed quickly and was ready to go before Pooja had even chosen what she was going to wear.

"You're not going anywhere without me," Pooja told her sternly. "I'm going to make sure you go to the mess and eat."

"Then hurry up!" Naina told her impatiently, thinking that Pooja was taking far too long to get changed.

Finally the two girls headed to the mess where Naina ate her food in record time. She was so absorbed in finishing as quickly as possible that she didn't notice Huda staring at her with a thoughtful look on his face as if he was considering something.

"Accha meri Ma," Naina said, turning towards Pooja when she had finished what was on her plate. "Can I go now?"

Pooja giggled, "Ask your dad as well."

Sighing, Naina turned to her other side where Aalekh was sitting and looked at him expectantly.

"Bole to… jao, beti." Aalekh said, pretending not to smile.

Naina grinned at him in return, it was the happiest they had ever seen her, as if all of her worries had disappeared.

"Don't worry about Lolita ma'am," Pooja told Naina quietly, "If you're not back by lights out then I'll manage her."

"Thanks, Pooja." Naina whispered, and quickly left.

/

She had only meant to check whether Rajveer was awake yet. Entering his bedroom quietly she turned on a small lamp and saw him sleeping peacefully.

At this point she should have left, but she was reluctant to. Part of her hoped that he would wake up so that they could talk, but the other side of her wanted him to sleep until morning with no disturbances.

'It wouldn't hurt if I just stayed for a bit longer', she thought to herself.

Truthfully, she was tired too. Ever since he had left, she hadn't been sleeping well, staying awake for hours every night wondering where he was and what he was doing.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, she climbed onto the bed next to him, lying on her side facing him so that she could watch him sleep.

Naina didn't even realise when her eyes closed and she fell asleep herself.

/

Naina stirred in her sleep, it felt as if somebody had just brushed the hair back from her face and behind her ear. She must be imagining it, as Pooja would never do such a thing.  
This feeling was enough to wake her up completely and she opened her eyes to find Captain Rajveer in front of her, wide awake.

He was lying on his side, facing her, resting his cheek on one arm. It was obvious that he had been awake and watching her for some time. He looked a hundred times better than he had the previous day.

"Good morning," he told her, a small smile on his face.

"Uh, morning, Sir?" Naina asked him, still struggling to wake up properly.

"Well it is 5am."

Suddenly Naina realised that in her sleep she had rolled onto one of his arms, which now lay trapped beneath her neck and partially curled around her back. It only took her a second after that to realise that her hair was a mess, her kurta was slightly askew and showing off a pale section of her waist, and most importantly, she had just woken up in Captain Rajveer's bed.

Oh God.

It was 5am, and she had just spent the entire night sleeping in her mentor's bed. It didn't matter that nothing had happened, if someone was to find this out then…

Oh God.

"Uh, Sir…"

"You look sweet when you're asleep." He told her, and then looked mortified, as if he couldn't believe those words had just came out of his mouth.

"Sir, I, uh…" she was stuttering, and couldn't make her mouth work properly. She had to put a bit of distance between them before she said something she would regret.

Abruptly she jumped up from the bed, smoothing her kurta and fixing her hair with the band it had gotten loose from last night.

"Sir, I promise, I didn't mean to fall asleep here, I just came to check on you, and I don't even know how I fell asleep here, and I…" it all came out in one big rush, only stopping when Raj held up one hand to interrupt.

"It's okay, Naina, I realised that you hadn't meant to fall asleep the moment I woke up and saw you here." He told her, clearly amused by her reactions.

"Then Sir, I'll, uh, go and get Dr Shalini!" She told him in one hurried breath and practically ran out of the room.

"Stupid…" she was muttering to herself as she closed his door behind her, heading towards Dr Shalini's room when a voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Cadet Singh!"

Naina froze, slowly turning around to face the person, trying not to cringe as she did so.

There in front of her stood Major Nair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"Cadet Singh, can I ask what you're doing coming out of a faculty member's room at this time of the morning?" Major Nair asked her, practically smirking at being able to find her in such a compromising situation.

"Well, uh, Major Nair," It was too early in the morning and Naina wasn't really awake enough yet to think of a good excuse, "Sir, I'm here because…"

"Because I asked you to check on Captain Rajveer, right Cadet?"

Naina breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to let Major Nair know how much she had been panicking until Doctor Shalini turned up.

"Actually Major, I saw Cadet Naina a few minutes ago on her way to the showers and asked her if she would mind checking on Captain Rajveer for me, I hope you don't mind." She raised an eyebrow at the Major, daring him to call her a liar. "So Cadet Singh, is Captain Rajveer awake yet?"

"Yes Ma'am," Naina told her, sounding perfectly sincere now that she was over her initial shock. "When I went in he was already awake, I was on my way to find you when the Major stopped me."

"Excellent, Cadet Singh." Shalini told her proudly, "Well since I'm already here, why don't you go and tell Suriji to make something good for the Captain for breakfast and send it in."

Naina left as quickly as possible, not wanting to stick around with Major Nair for too long. She was sure that Suriji would also be happy to know that Captain Rajveer was awake and would immediately order something special cooked for him.

"So, Major, any problems?" Shalini asked, trying her best to sound innocent.

"Just what exactly is the Captain suffering from, Doctor, that you're sending Cadets to check on him?"

"Well actually, Major, Captain Rajveer has been on special duty for the past four days and is currently suffering from exhaustion. I was waiting for him to wake up before giving him a check up. Now if you'll excuse me…"

And leaving Major Nair behind, she headed into Captain Rajveer's room and closed the door behind her.

"Captain?" she called out, knocking on the wall to let him know she was there.

"You can come in, Doctor!" He called out and she came into the bedroom to find him sitting on the side of the bed, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make it behave.

He looked tired, but not as pale as he had the day before, or as exhausted. Shalini guessed that all he would need was a bit more rest than usual for a week or so but she wanted to check him anyway.

"B.P. Captain." She said, showing him the instrument which she had carried with her.

Raj shot her a look which said he had known this would be what she wanted.

"It's normal procedure, Captain." Shalini told him in a no nonsense tone, "You're just going to have to let me take it."

"Doctor, we both know that the only thing wrong with me is too little sleep and there's only one thing that can cure that."

Watching the display on the machine, Shalini commented, "And probably not enough food for the past few days too, am I right?" Without even waiting for an answer she continued, "I've sent Naina to Suriji to ask him to make you a good breakfast."

"Uh, Naina?" Raj said, a sudden look of panic coming on his face, as if he wasn't sure exactly how much Shalini knew.

"Yes, Naina. Luckily I arrived here just as Major Nair was interrogating her about what she was doing coming out of your room at this hour. I told him that I had sent her."

Raj gave a sigh of relief, "Thanks Doc, or else god knows what he would've made of it."

"So… Cadet Singh came to check on you rather early." Shalini commented, trying to find out what was really going on.

Rajveer started to look distinctly uncomfortable, as if he wasn't quite sure how to reply to Shalini's statement. "She, uh, I think she'd been waiting for me to tell her about what happened. After all, it's about her brother…" Now please stop asking questions, he silently begged her, just forget about this.

"Oh, I wouldn't sell yourself that short, Captain." Shalini said with a smile, "I think she was quite worried about you too, or she probably wouldn't have fallen asleep here."

Raj's mouth dropped, not believing what the doctor had just said.

"Shalini, she, uh… no, no she didn't."

"It's alright, Captain." She smiled at him mischievously. "Your secret is safe with me. Now I'd best be going so that you can have a shower before your breakfast arrives."

Raj decided to take her advice, luckily he'd been able to take some spare clothes with him when he left, as he'd suspected that he wouldn't be coming back for awhile. But he hadn't showered since the day before yesterday and he wanted to feel fresh before he had to recount the events of the past week. He had been so exhausted when he arrived back, that he couldn't even remember what he had said or did after reaching KMA. He remembered that Naina had come to his room, that he told her he had been successful, and she had helped him to his bed. But after that… it was all a big blank. He hadn't said anything he shouldn't have, had he? He certainly hoped not.

He had woken earlier than he should've that morning, probably due to the fact that he was a very light sleeper and wasn't at all used to having someone else in his bed. When he had awoken it had panicked him at first until he turned to his side and saw Naina, her face lit up by the soft glow of the lamp she had obviously forgotten to turn off the night before. His arm had been trapped beneath her but he hadn't minded in the least, just content to watch her and inhale her scent. He wished she had stayed asleep for longer, but he hadn't been able to resist tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, the feeling like silk under his fingers.

Her embarrassment at waking up in his bed had been endearingly cute, if only she knew that he would love to wake up beside her every day in this way…

Stopping that thought abruptly, Raj grabbed a towel and headed towards the shower.

/

After informing Suriji that Captain Rajveer was awake and would need some breakfast, Naina had hurried to shower and dress so that she could see him again before classes started for the day. Her first session for the day was free study, so she would have until 10am to speak with him about what had happened while he was away.

Coming back to the room after her shower to change into her uniform, Naina found Pooja looking at her knowingly.

"So missed call, where were you last night?"

Naina laughed self consciously, there was no point in trying to hide anything from Pooja. "Actually I accidentally fell asleep there."

"Hai, kitna romantic hai!" Pooja squealed excitedly, "In his arms?"

Naina grimaced at the memory. "Well unfortunately, I think it was on top of one of his arms. I just hope it's okay now…"

Pooja giggled. "Still, even if it was in sleep mode, at least you got to spend some time with your Shahrukh."

"No, Pooja. It was so embarrassing! It would've been okay if I woke up before he did, but when I woke up he was looking at me! And I know I look terrible in the morning, and then when I was leaving, Major Nair caught me!"

"That mucchad?" Pooja exclaimed, shocked. "What did he do?"

"Well luckily Dr Shalini lied to him that she'd sent me to check on the Captain."

"Hai Rabba, shukur." Pooja said, and then remembered the other point Naina had just said. "And you always look beautiful Naina, I'm sure that was why Shahrukh was looking at you, trying to click your photo for his memory."

Naina smiled, "Well I'm going to go see him now, so hopefully I won't do anything else to embarrass myself!"

And she left for the mess to see if his breakfast was ready.

/

Walking into Captain Rajveer's room with a tray of food, Naina didn't even think about knocking.

"Sir, I've brought you…." And she gasped and almost dropped the tray on the floor.

Raj turned around quickly, he'd been at the mirror shaving and hadn't expected anyone to arrive just yet.

"Cadet Singh!" He exclaimed, panicking. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you knock?" The last time that this had happened…

The only thing he was wearing was a towel, and thank goodness that it was long.

Turning away, Naina put the tray down on the bench and then turned her back, keeping her head down in an effort not to look at him.

"Sir, I'm so sorry!" she said, absolutely horrified that she'd walked in on him in this way. "I swear I didn't mean to, I think today just isn't my best day!" Or maybe it was, but she wasn't going to say that… She was blushing so much that she was sure her whole face had turned red, and she honestly was trying not to look at him, but she couldn't help herself from glancing up.

His hair was still damp, and ruffled from when he had tried drying it. Apart from the towel, his body was completely bare, drops of water still clinging to his shoulders. And his body… She had known that he would be fit, as a soldier in the army he had to be. But looking at him this way, half naked, his strong chest, the muscles of his upper arms… it was doing strange things to her insides. Naina decided it was a much safer option to just keep looking at the ground.

"I'll uh, I'll just go and change." Raj said, and practically ran for his bedroom.

Naina tried not to laugh, she supposed she had cursed herself when she had told Pooja she hoped she wouldn't do anything else embarrassing today.

Meanwhile in the bedroom, Raj was trying to decide what he should wear. Her coming in on him like that had been embarrassing, although he didn't have anything to be ashamed of. But now he should wear something that was… To be honest, he wanted to wear something he would look good in. Especially after how he had looked the day before.

Suddenly he realised how that sounded. 'Raj,' he scolded himself 'Stop behaving like a teenager. It's Naina, she's your student, and she doesn't care what you wear.' But he still took another minute to choose a shirt.

Finally coming out of the bedroom, he found Naina sitting in one of his chairs, looking both embarrassed and amused. "I really am very sorry, Sir." She told him, "I promise I'll knock before coming in from now on."

"It's really okay, Naina." He told her, "I should've realised that you would be coming back, it was stupid of me to just have been standing here like this."

"Sir, breakfast." She indicated the tray on the table. At least it looked like Suriji had made an effort. But Raj had no idea how he was supposed to eat so much food. He stared at it in amazement, it was a wonder that she had managed to get the tray here. Raj supposed it was a sign of how much Suriji liked him.

"Naina, do you think you could help me with this?" he asked her, "I don't know how I'm supposed to eat all this food."

"But Sir, you haven't eaten well for days. I think it's best that you eat all of it."

He looked at her in disbelief. "All of it?"

Naina looked down at the tray and laughed, "I suppose you have a point, Sir."

"You haven't eaten breakfast yet have you, Naina?"

"Well no, but…"

"Then you'll have to help me!"

And going to the bench he took out an extra plate and fork, and began dividing up the breakfast.

"Anyway," Raj continued, "It seems like you haven't been eating or sleeping properly for days either."

Self consciously, Naina looked down at her hands, "Am I really looking that bad, Sir?" she asked, only half joking.

The question caught Rajveer off balance, he hadn't been expecting it. "No, I didn't mean it that way. I mean, you're always… You look fine, Naina."

"That wasn't the way you put it last night…" she muttered under her breath.

Raj nearly spat out his breakfast, she couldn't have just…. "Did you just say something, Naina?"

"I said you're looking a lot better than you were last night." She replied innocently, and started sipping her juice.

They ate in silence while Raj tried to work out whether his ears were playing tricks on him.

Finally, when the food was finished, he decided it was time to fill Naina in on the events of the past few days. He told her about his questioning of Dr Mishra, of how she had led them to the documents and evidence they would need to jail the people responsible and prove Navin innocent. He had started telling her the names of those people when his phone suddenly rang.

"Yes, Sir?" he said. "That's excellent news, Sir. Right now? Thank you very much for informing me. Yes, much better, Sir. Jai Hind." And he hung up the phone.

"Turn the television on, Naina!" Raj told her excitedly.

"Which channel?" Naina asked, as she grabbed the remote.

"Any of the news channels."

And there on the screen in front of her, was news of a huge conspiracy that had been uncovered within the defence ministry, government, and high ranks of the army. Even the defence minister had been arrested on charges of betraying the country, the government was in chaos as they tried to figure out what to do. And then the line that she had been waiting four long years for came.

"When a young officer named Captain Navin Singh Ahluwalia had tried to expose the conspiracy four years ago, these same people then branded him as a traitor and he died with a stain on his name. Today this brave, patriotic officer has been proved innocent, and the true traitors are facing punishment…"

Naina didn't need to hear anything else other than that, dropping the remote she turned around to Rajveer.

"We did it, Sir." She told him with tears in her eyes, "We finally did it." And wrapping her arms around him, she began to weep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

For a moment, Raj couldn't respond. The relief was too great, after four long years of guilt and misery, he had finally accomplished his mission. And here in his arms, the sister of his dead friend was crying. He wished he could simply comfort her, but he knew that he shouldn't. There were so many things he shouldn't do when it came to Naina. The matter should have been simple, but he knew what the truth was. Once he put his arms around her, how would he ever be able to let go?

But Naina's sobs were becoming worse. In one moment, four years of pain and sorrow had poured out of her heart. She clutched at Raj as if she would drown if she let go of him, her tears soaking into his shirt. Finally, Raj couldn't take it anymore, principles be damned, he couldn't let her cry like this without comforting her.

Wrapping one arm around her back protectively, he used the other to press her head closer to his chest. Guiding her into the other room, gently he made her sit down on the bed with him, knowing that she couldn't keep crying in this manner and remain standing.

"Shhhh, Naina." He told her soothingly, stroking her hair. "Everything is alright now, Navin's honour has been returned to him. There's nothing to cry about anymore, Naina."

She tried to speak, but couldn't get the words out past her sobs. Instead she kept crying against his chest, while he rubbed her back soothingly. She didn't notice when it was that the only sound she could hear anymore was the thumping of his heart where she rested her head. He didn't notice when it was that his arm tightened around her, or when the hand that had been stroking her hair slid down to rest on her shoulder.

Naina looked up at him and their gazes met. Her eyes were still moist, but now there was a sense of purpose in them, as if all of her confusion had melted away along with the tears. Slowly, gently, Naina raised a hand to caress his face. As her fingers traced a path from his cheek to his chin, Raj closed his eyes and tried to control the beating of his heart. His mind was screaming at him to stop this right now before it went too far, but his emotions were telling him something completely different. As Naina's fingers reached his jaw, they slid effortlessly behind his neck to rest there.

The motion was too much for Raj to endure, not when she was sitting so close to him, touching him in this way. Taking his right hand off her shoulder, he used it to tilt her head up slightly, even as his left arm snaked around her waist, pressing her even closer to him so that he could feel the warmth of her body through his clothing.

It took less than one second for him to lose any trace of reason or logic. All arguments against what he was doing flew out of his head. Perhaps later he could blame his actions on a lack of sleep or on the slight fever he'd had since the day before yesterday. But right now all he knew was that he wanted Naina Singh Ahluwalia, and he had never wanted anything in his whole life as much as he wanted her right now.

It took less than a second to close the distance between them, and his lips met hers, softly brushing against them. He leaned his forehead against hers, and sighed deeply, as if exhaling all his worries in one breath. Naina's eyes were closed, and one solitary tear slid down her cheek. Seeing it, Raj began to think that he'd made a mistake and started to move away, only to be stopped by Naina's hand on the back of his neck. Slowly she opened her eyes again, and the expression in them was one of such unquestioning trust, that it completely bowled Raj over.

"Naina, I…" he whispered, but she held up a hand to silence him.

Silently, she placed a hand over his heart, feeling it beat erratically beneath her fingers. Then slowly she tilted her head up until her lips met his once more, kissing him with only the slightest pressure.

Taking her action for consent, Raj placed his hand over hers, entwining their fingers. Then, moving one hand to behind her head so it entangled with her hair, he deepened the kiss. Her lips tasted like the juice she'd just drunk, and the taste of them was intoxicating.

He could tell that Naina was in no way experienced in these matters, although it wasn't as if he was that far ahead of her in that respect. Her kisses were all the sweeter for their fumbling uncertainty, he wanted to teach her everything that she would ever need to know.

Teach her…

Something was trying to enter the fog that was clouding his mind, but the feel of Naina's lips beneath his, of her hair under his fingers, of the way their legs had entangled, was driving it all out of his head.

There was a reason why he shouldn't be doing this, he knew there was…

It was the academy bell which reminded him of what it was.

There, sitting on his bed, with her eyes wide, her hair ruffled by his fingers, and her uniform slightly askew was Naina Singh Ahluwalia. His best friend's sister. His protégé. His student.

He had gone way too far.

/

Shocked at his actions, Raj practically leapt up from the bed, striding over to the wall before leaning one arm against it for support. He was still breathing heavily, and he didn't even dare to look at Naina because he didn't want to see the expression in her eyes.

He had promised Navin that he wouldn't take advantage of her trust.

He had made certain oaths when he joined the army. He was sure that doing this had to be against one of them. He had read the academy's rule book on several occasions, usually in order to do something Major Nair didn't want him to. He knew exactly which rules he had broken and exactly what the punishment for doing so would be.

Turning around to face Naina, he saw the uncertainty on her face, the question in her eyes.

"Naina," he whispered, his voice so full of sorrow that he feared it would break, "We can't."

He didn't need to say anything else, she understood perfectly.

Naina ran from the room as fast as she possibly could.

/

She ran almost blindly, not noticing where she was going until she knocked into somebody.

"Oof," Shalini exclaimed, "Cadet, will you watch where you're…" But she stopped mid sentence at the look on Naina's face. "Naina, are you…"

"I'm sorry, ma'am." Naina told her, in such a distraught way that Shalini was genuinely concerned for her.

"Cadet, what's wrong?"

"I have to go, ma'am. I'm late." Naina said quickly, and then ran towards her room before Shalini could say anything else. Shalini glanced in the direction that Naina had run from, and suddenly understood.

When she reached her room, Naina closed the door behind her and slumped onto the bed, still partially in shock. After everything that had happened in the last half hour, she had no words to describe how she was feeling.

Her brother had been proven innocent. She should have been ecstatic, she should've been laughing with joy. Instead the wall which she had built in her heart to contain all of her grief and pain had finally broken down. She hadn't been able to contain it any longer, and she had needed to let it all out, to rid herself of everything. And Rajveer had been there, just as he always was. Ready to support her, ready to help her.

Rajveer…Raj… She realised this was the first time she had thought of him without attaching a Captain or a Sir to his name.

Things shouldn't have gone that far, she knew that. Naina knew that what they had done was wrong, but she wasn't sure that she cared. She loved him, she couldn't hide it from herself and she no longer wanted to hide it from him. She loved him so much that her heart was practically bursting with the pressure of containing it.

And then today… the emotions had been too much for her, and it had seemed almost natural to let love and passion replace sorrow and pain.

The feel of her lips on hers… His hands running through her hair… His breath on her skin…

Naina closed her eyes, trying to shut out the memories, but they just came back even more strongly.

She didn't know what was right or wrong anymore, all she knew was that she wanted to be with him.

Just then there was a knock on the door, and as Naina hurried to open it she half expected it to be him, but instead an orderly stood there.

"Naina Singh, Brigadier Chandook has called you to his office." The orderly told her.

Naina just hoped that it wasn't bad news.

/

Shalini entered Raj's room to find him hitting the wall, his hand hard against the surface.

"Captain, stop it!" she called out, concerned that he might injure himself if he kept it up.

When he turned around, the look in his eyes was one of such anguish that it floored Shalini.

"Why?" he asked her, "What point is there when…." But he never finished the sentence.

"I saw Naina running out of here." It was more of a question than a statement.

Raj didn't reply, instead he turned his head away from her, hiding his expression.

"Look, Rajveer." Shalini started calmly, "You can talk to me about this. I'm not going to tell anyone, and I'm not going to judge you. But hitting the wall certainly isn't going to help solve your problem." She waited patiently, if he wanted to tell her then he would.

Finally Raj turned around, and the tears shining in his eyes shocked Shalini.

"I've done something incredibly stupid." He told her. "I've broken promises that I had made to myself."

"You love her." This time it was not a question but a statement, Shalini had known ever since Rajveer's detention after the mentorship camp.

"Yes," he whispered, sliding down the wall until he was slumped against it, as if the effort needed to keep standing was just too great. "I shouldn't, but I do."

There was a knock at the door and Raj forced himself to be calm, to get up and to answer it. An orderly stood there. "Brigadier Chandook has called you to his cabin."

Raj turned to face Dr Shalini again, resignation clear in his face. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I have to go. I shouldn't have burdened you with this."

"Captain!" she called out quickly to stop him before he could leave, and he turned back around. "Captain, love is not a crime." She told him simply. "You can't choose who you love and who you don't."

He seemed to consider what she has said, and then nodding, left without a word.

/

Seeing Naina standing in the Brigadier's office, Raj's initial thought had been that somehow BC found out. But that possibility was extremely unlikely and there must be some other reason for them both to be called there. Naina shot him a glance that was a mixture of anxiety and unhappiness. It must be as difficult for her as it was for him to be standing here with him less than half an hour after… well, after…. Well…. When he was having his much trouble even admitting to himself what he had done, how was he ever going to properly deal with it?

When Brigadier Chandook glanced up to see that Rajveer had finally arrived, he motioned for them to both sit down, something that surprised Naina immensely.

"I've called you here because you're both involved in this matter," he informed them, "Especially you, Cadet Ahluwalia."

Raj waited for him to continue, having guessed what it was that he had called them here for.

"Cadet Ahluwalia," Brigadier Chandook addressed her, "Your brother was the best cadet I have ever had, and I would first of all like to apologise to you for ever having believed he was a traitor. I saw it on the news, and have just received a call from Delhi to confirm it."

Naina was both shocked and overjoyed by his words, but before she could react, Brigadier Chandook continued.

"On behalf of the Indian Army, I would like to apologise to you for the pain and humiliation caused to your family due to the false charges laid against your brother. Some officers have also been sent to your house to convey this to your parents."

Naina finally spoke up. "Thank you very much, Sir, you don't know how much this means to me. I would like you to know that I don't blame you for believing my brother was a traitor, after all it was a conspiracy created by some very powerful people."

Brigadier Chandook nodded, happy at the mature way in which she was handling this. "And I hope that Captain Rajveer will also accept my apologies, as he has consistently worked to prove your brother innocent." 

"Of course, Sir." Raj murmured, not quite able to believe what was happening.

"Now, Cadet Ahluwalia," Brigadier Chandook continued, smiling. "I believe you had made a vow that your brother's photo would be hung in the hall of fame again. I realise that you will want it done as soon as possible, but if you like then we can wait for a few days in order to arrange for a proper ceremony, after all, you're all due to depart for holidays in two days. Perhaps after you come back?"

"No, Sir." Naina said quietly. "I would prefer it to be done as soon as possible, Navin Bhaiya should be back where he belongs."

Brigadier Chandook nodded, "Then we'll arrange a small ceremony for this afternoon. I know that holidays don't officially begin for two more days, but if you like you can leave today after the ceremony has been conducted. I know that right now you will want to spend some time with your family."

"Thank you, Sir." She told him, "I appreciate your offer and I think it is best that I be with my family right now."

"Dismissed then, Cadet Singh." He told her, "I imagine that you will need to call your parents and arrange for your journey." Naina saluted him and left the room.

Raj wanted to follow her, feeling that they really needed to talk about what had happened earlier. He hoped that the reason she was going home early wasn't because she wanted to avoid him.

"Captain Rajveer, perhaps you could contribute some ideas for the ceremony this afternoon." Brigadier Chandook told him. "After all, you were Navin's best friend."

Naina Singh Ahluwalia and his love for her would have to wait. Raj still had a duty to his best friend to fulfil.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Naina met her friends in the mess at lunch, having spent the rest of the morning speaking to her parents and helping to arrange the ceremony. Her parents had of course been ecstatic to know that their son's innocence had finally been proven, and her mother had been in tears while talking to Naina on the phone. They approved of her idea of having Navin's photo back on the hall of fame as soon as possible. Even though they wished they could be there, both of her parents were hesitant about returning to KMA. There were just too many bad memories for them to deal with.

As soon as Naina entered the mess, Suriji came over and hugged her with tears in his eyes. "Shabash, putar." He told her, "Finally you've managed to prove your brother innocent, Shabash!"

This nearly started Naina crying again. "You should be telling this to Captain Rajveer, Sir." She told him quietly. "If it wasn't for him then I never could have accomplished this mission. He's the one who deserves all the congratulations."

Suriji nodded, patted Naina on the head in a fatherly way, and went back to supervising the orderlies.

Naina then headed over to the tables where her friends were, sitting down in the chair beside Aalekh. By now the whole academy had heard the news that Captain Navin Singh Ahluwalia had been innocent, and had died for his country as a martyr rather than a traitor. Cadets kept coming up to Naina to congratulate her and tell her they were sorry about what they had believed in the past. Eventually realising that Naina wasn't going to be able to get up any time soon due to all the well wishers, Yudi went and fetched her a plate of food to eat. Naina smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks, Yudi." Then looking around at all of their faces, "Thanks to all of you. If it wasn't for your support and friendship then I could never have come this far. I would've been out of this academy a long time ago."

Everybody smiled, but Ali looked slightly uncomfortable. "I just wish that I had supported you like I should have, Naina." He told her with true sincerity, "When Bhargav was here, I…"

"Forget about it, Ali." Naina told him with a smile, reaching out to take hold of his hand. "That wasn't your fault, we all know how Bhargav manipulated you. What matters is that when you realised your mistake you admitted it, and after that you've never stopped supporting me."

Ali smiled, relieved that she wouldn't hold what had happened in the past against him.

"You know Naina," Huda told her thoughtfully, "I think I was right to name you Phoolan Devi. You've got the same fighting spirit that she did."

Naina smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. So far she had gotten the strength to fight from her need to prove that her brother had been a martyr. But how was she going to fight all of the battles that lay ahead of her?

Seeing Naina upset, Aalekh put an arm around her, hugging her to him. Immediately, Naina felt better. She didn't need to worry when she had friends like these, somehow she knew that they'd always be here for her.

Just then Major Nair's voice over the loudspeaker, "All Cadets and Faculty members are requested to come to the foyer for a special assembly in ten minutes time."

Naina knew what the announcement was for, the moment had finally arrived.

/

Naina stood with the rest of the cadets in formation, right at the front with her head held high. If she had been brave enough to glance over at Captain Rajveer then she would've seen that the expression on his face was one of intense pride as he looked at her.

Finally Brigadier Chandook decided that it was time to begin the proceedings, and walked over to the microphone.

"Cadets and Faculty members, today we are gathered here for a very special reason. One year ago a cadet came to this academy with a mission, determined to prove that her brother was a martyr and not a traitor. That cadet is Naina Singh Ahluwalia." After this announcement, the attention of most of the people in the room shifted to Naina, waiting to see her reaction. Naina could barely stop herself from smiling, she was so happy. Brigadier Chandook continued. "Four year ago, Navin Singh Ahluwalia was accused of being a traitor. This was a conspiracy woven by some very powerful people within the government and military when he had tried to expose their own traitorous actions against our country. Today when his innocence has been proven, we wish to return his photo to our academy's wall of fame. But first, I would like Captain Rajveer to say a few words." He stepped aside to make room at the microphone.

As Raj stepped up he looked at the faces of the cadets assembled, all of them waiting with great anticipation to see what he would say. Only Naina appeared to be calm, her face not betraying the excitement he could tell she was feeling. Finally, Raj took a deep breath, and began what was probably the most important speech he had ever made in his life.

"Captain Navin Singh Ahluwalia was my batchmate and my best friend. We spent our academy days here together and I always knew that he would be the best cadet. He was the most honest and patriotic soldier that you could ever hope to meet. When I heard that he had been accused of being a traitor I knew that it must have been a lie, but I was helpless and couldn't save him. Still, I kept hoping that one day I could help to prove his innocence." He met Naina's gaze then, locking eyes with her for a brief second before he continued. "When Cadet Naina Singh Ahluwalia came to this academy, she inspired me with her attitude and her refusal to give up, even against impossible odds. Seeing her belief, I also began to believe that proving Navin innocent might be possible. Today that dream has come true." Then his voice turned more serious. "If there is one lesson that I wish you all to learn from Navin, then it is this: No matter what cost to yourself, no matter how you might personally suffer, you should always fight for the truth. Even if it might cost you your life or your reputation, always fight for the honour of your country, and never compromise your morals or accept lies." The cadets nodded, taking his advice seriously. "Now, I would like to call upon Cadet Naina Singh Ahluwalia to say a few words and then hang her brother's photo back on the wall of fame, where it belongs."

Naina felt all eyes on her as she marched to the microphone, but she didn't mind. "I don't want to make a speech," she told them, "I think that Brigadier Chandook and Captain Rajveer have already said everything that needs to be said. But I would like to ask Rajveer Sir to help me hang Bhaiyya's photo on the wall, because if Navin Bhaiyya has been proven innocent today, then it is only because of him."

Raj stared at her in astonishment, he hadn't been expecting this. But Naina's face didn't reveal anything except for the happiness and pride she was currently feeling. He nodded and then walked to where Navin's photo lay on a nearby table waiting. It was the same photo that Naina had kept with her for the last year, although now it had a new frame. Holding one side of the frame each, they took it to the wall of fame, pausing only for a second before reverently hanging it back in its old place. Applause broke out instantly, Naina's friends clapping loudest of all, as they watched proudly.

"Now," Brigadier Chandook announced, "Let us all salute Shahid Captain Navin Singh Ahluwalia."

Everybody quickly snapped to attention, saluting the photo. After a few moments, Brigadier Chandook announced that everybody was dismissed, and that their next class would be starting in half an hour.

Naina tried to control her tears, but one slipped out of her eye, running down her cheek silently. Forgetting everything that had happened this morning, forgetting that people were watching, Raj only thought about comforting her.

Putting an arm around her shoulders, he briefly hugged her. There was nothing romantic about the gesture, it was one of simple comfort. Slowly he released her, knowing that it was for the best to keep the embrace brief.

"So, uh, you're leaving for Nainital this afternoon?" he asked her awkwardly, not quite sure how he should be acting around her.

"Yes," she answered quietly, "All of the exams are over now, and I won't be missing any major drills. Ma and Baba want me to come as soon as possible."

"So then, I guess I'll see you after the holidays." He was expecting that she wouldn't want to see him right now after how he'd behaved. So he was especially surprised by her next sentence.

"Actually, Sir." Naina told him, "I was hoping that you could give me a lift to the bus."

Raj wasn't really sure what Naina was doing, but he couldn't refuse her.

At least they could travel that far together.

/

It didn't take long for Naina to get ready to leave, all she had to do was change her clothes and grab the bag that she had packed that morning after Brigadier Chandook had said she could go. Quickly she pulled on her outfit, put her hair in a ponytail and then headed downstairs.

She had already said goodbye to her friends after the ceremony so nothing was left to be done. Heading outside, she saw Captain Rajveer waiting, now changed into his casual clothes and leaning against his jeep with the keys in his hands. He looked up just as she came down the outside stairs and her heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes. It was the way with which a drowning man might view the far off shore. Naina shook herself out of her trance and approached him.

"Shall we go, Sir?" she asked, and he nodded mutely.

They were silent during the ride to the bus station, neither knowing quite how to start a conversation. There were many things that each needed to say to the other, but it just didn't quite seem like it was the right time.

Finally when they arrived, Naina got out of the jeep and turned back hesitantly, "I'll just buy the ticket," she told Raj, "Will you wait?"

He couldn't believe how much the hesitation in her voice affected him, had things gone to such an extent that she even had to ask him that? "Of course," he told her reassuringly, "I'll wait here."

Naina walked over to the ticket office, joining a queue of about ten people. Raj was content to sit in the jeep and watch her, noting that she often glanced over in his direction as she waited as if to make sure that he hadn't left. Naina was about fifth in the line when Raj noticed something that might become trouble. At a table nearby a group of about four boys sat, looking in Naina's direction and obviously observing her. The one that seemed to be their leader pointed at her, the rest of their group encouraging him. Raj had seen enough, he knew these boys would be harmless enough. But Naina didn't need them bothering her today of all days.

Leaving the car he walked quickly over to her, arriving just before the boy from the table did.

"How much longer is this going to take?" he asked her, "I've been waiting ages."

Naina seemed confused at first, wondering why he was making such a fuss about it, and then suddenly noticed the boy in the background glaring at Raj as if he'd just spoiled his day.

Smirking slightly, she decided that she'd take the pretence to the next level. "What's wrong?" she asked, "You can't stand to be without me for that long?"

And then before he could reply, she reached out and grabbed his hand, entwining his fingers with hers.

Raj was about to protest, but realised that the boy was still standing there watching them. He gave in, and stood there with her hand in his, trying not to think about how small her fingers felt compared to his, or how warm her palm was, or how much he wished that…

He shook his head, trying to get rid of these thoughts. He had already decided that he couldn't do this, he had to stay strong because he could clearly see that it would be very easy to lose his resolve with Naina around.

She looked different with her hair in a ponytail, compared to the harsh braid that she normally wore it in for training. It made her look softer, more feminine. He yearned to run his hands through her hair, to brush it away from her face…

Raj cursed under his breath, he really was losing his mind.

Finally it was Naina's turn and she stepped forward to order her ticket. "One ticket for Nainital, please." She asked the man at the counter, handing over the money.

"Just one?" he asked her, "Your husband isn't going too?"

Naina rolled her eyes at the man's nosiness but replied anyway. "No, I'm just going to my parents' house for a few days."

The ticket seller nodded in understanding and gave her back her change. Together they stepped out of the way of the queue and Raj watched while Naina put both the ticket and her change into her purse.

"So when does the bus leave?" he asked her.

"In an hour," she replied. "Will you stay with me until then? We could get some coffee… and talk."

Raj wanted to refuse, partly because he was scared of what she would say and partly because he knew she could all too easily convince him that he was wrong for refusing this relationship. But standing in front of her, as she looked at him with those wide eyes of hers, he couldn't think of any way to say no. He could never refuse anything that she asked of him.

"Sure." He told her hesitantly, and they walked to a nearby café.

He was careful to select a booth at the back of the café, away from where they might be spotted. He was paranoid that somebody from KMA might see them and report them to BC. But he knew he was being ridiculous, who here could guess that they were from KMA, and what was wrong with sitting there and having a coffee with her anyway?

After ordering, they were silent until the coffees arrived, and then he used drinking his as an excuse not to meet her eyes. But Naina wasn't ready to give up. Placing her coffee down on the table, she reached out and touched his hand lightly, indicating that he should put his down too.

"We need to talk about this."

Raj didn't need to ask what 'this' was.

"Naina, whatever happened this morning shouldn't have." He told her, trying to pretend that he meant it. "We were both… too emotional. We got carried away, and it shouldn't have happened, and it won't happen again." He hoped that he sounded final enough and that she would agree with him.

She shot him a look that plainly said she wasn't stupid. "Don't pretend that you didn't want it to happen, Sir. I know how you feel about me."

"First of all, why do you think you know how I feel about you? Secondly," and he stopped, feeling completely and utterly frustrated by his own inability to control his emotions, "Don't you realise how wrong this is, Naina? You should be able to tell by the fact that you're still calling me Sir." Trying to remain calm, he picked up his coffee again and began drinking.

"Calling you Sir is just a habit," Naina told him, "But you're right, it's not appropriate for me to be saying it while we're having this conversation. And, Raj," the way she said his name sent shivers up his spine, he realised it was the first time he had heard it from her lips. "Just because you haven't told me how you feel about me, it doesn't mean I haven't figured it out." Then she paused and thought, "Although to be honest, Aalekh was the one who first pointed it out to me."

Raj almost spat out his coffee and hurriedly put the cup down before he dropped it. "Aalekh? And why was Aalekh pointing out my feelings to you?"

To be honest, he wasn't that surprised though. If there was one cadet who was likely to notice, then it would be Aalekh. That boy seemed to figure out everything.

"It doesn't matter why he pointed it out. What matters is what we do next." Naina stopped, and the desperation she was feeling was evident in her eyes. "Raj, don't shut me out this way. We both know that there's something between us, and we both know that we want it."

Suddenly Raj didn't want to pretend anymore, he wanted to agree with her, he wanted to tell her she was right, but there were so many barriers standing in their way.

"Naina," he said her name almost as a sigh and reached out to take both her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles slowly in a comforting manner. "You know we can't do this, there are so many reasons…"

"Yes Sir…Raj…" Naina corrected herself, still not used to calling him by his first name. "There are a lot of reasons why we shouldn't be together. But there are also many why we should be."

"Naina, the academy's rules… I could be demoted or thrown out of the army, you could be thrown out of the academy. I don't want to ruin your life, and your parents… they'll never accept me. They'll never forgive you."

"Raj…" taking one of her hands out of his, she reached up to touch one of his cheeks and almost against his will, he leaned into her caress, unable to help himself.

"Raj, these are serious problems. But that doesn't mean we give up. I'm not asking you to endanger your career for me, I would never want that. But just because we can't be together until I finish my training, it doesn't mean that we can't live on our hopes for the future. And my parents… well, if we're going to wait until my training is finished, then that means that I have a year left to convince them. Who knows, maybe now that you've helped to prove Navin innocent they'll forgive you."

Raj had been desperately hoping that this would be the case, but he couldn't believe that his prayers would actually be answered.

"Maybe you're right, Naina. But if your parents don't give in, then what? Do I take you from them too after I've already taken Navin away? Can you really bear to be separated from your parents if they won't forgive us?"

Taking her hand away from his cheek, Naina placed it back into his empty hand, and her heart seemed to jump a little as he tightened his grip on her fingers.

"You know, Raj, Pooja said something wise to me when I was talking to her about this. She told me that I was only thinking about what my parents would want and what I wanted, but not about what Navin would have wanted. Think about it, Raj. Think about what Navin would've wanted for the two of us."

Glancing at her watch, she stood up. "My bus is leaving in ten minutes, we should get going."

Raj paid the bill and they walked back to the bus in silence. Almost unconsciously, half way there he leaned over and took her hand, holding it tightly in his as they walked. When they reached the bus they paused outside it, and Naina turned towards him.

"I'll be gone for a week." She told him, "Think about it until I come back. I'll be waiting for your answer." Then coming closer to him, she kissed him softly on the cheek, so close to his lips that she grazed the corner of his mouth. Naina turned to go, but Raj found he couldn't let go of her hand, pulling on it so that she was jerked back to him. He breathed hard, fighting with himself, with his feelings, before he pulled her closer, crushing her against him.

He didn't want her to go. He didn't want to spend the next week thinking about her question, as every day his resolve would become weaker and weaker and every night she would invade his dreams. He wanted her here, with him. The thought of not having her in his life scared him. Raj thought he already knew what his answer would be, and that thought scared him too.

Finally Raj released Naina slowly, and walked her to the bus's door, letting go of her hand only once she had stepped inside. Walking quickly to her seat, she sat down and looked out the window at him. As the bus started up she raised one hand as a final goodbye, and he found himself echoing the gesture. Raj stood there with his hand raised until the bus faded from sight, only then walking back to his jeep.

She had left him with far too many difficult questions to answer. Only one thing was for certain, the next week was going to be a long one.

/

The older lady sitting next to Naina smiled at her kindly, "It looks like he'll miss you a lot."

Naina blushed, "Do you think so… I mean, who are you talking about?"

"That young man you dropped you to the bus." The lady replied. "Did you get married recently."

If it was at all possible, Naina started blushing even more. "No, I mean, we're not married."

"Oh, so your boyfriend then. It must be hard leaving him behind."

Naina nodded, the old lady was so friendly that she couldn't help talking to her. However she didn't think she should tell her exactly what the circumstances were. "Yes, but it's only for a week. We'll see each other after the holidays."

"Still, a week is hard when you're young and in love," the older lady said knowingly.

Naina laughed, it certainly was.

The rest of the bus trip passed uneventfully as Naina's seatmate eventually nodded off to sleep and she was left only with her own thoughts for company. She couldn't believe that it had been only yesterday that Raj had returned successfully from his mission. In a little over 24 hours, her life had changed so much. She knew that the road ahead would be hard, but for the first time she felt optimistic that everything would work out fine. Eventually, rocked to sleep by the motion of the bus, Naina also drifted off, only waking up ten minutes before her stop to find that her seatmate had already departed the bus.

Naina's father picked her up at the station, hugging her to him proudly and taking her backpack despite her protests. She supposed that no matter how much strength she might gain as a soldier, she would still be his little girl. Together they went home, and Naina's mother threw her arms around her almost as soon as Naina had entered the house. Naina was happy that Brigadier Chandook had let her go early, it was important to spend some time with her parents now that Navin's innocence had been proved.

After giving Naina some tea and snacks and sitting her down on the couch, they began to talk about how it had all happened. Naina was careful to tell the story accurately, letting them both know that it was only due to Captain Rajveer that their son had finally been proven innocent. She was hoping that on hearing this, their hearts might soften towards him and that they would forgive him.

"I could never have done it without Captain Rajveer," she told them, "It's because of him that Bhaiya has been proven innocent."

"Well of course he did it," her father replied dismissively, "He had to do something to get rid of his guilt."

Naina felt her heart sink, this hadn't been the reaction she had hoped for.

"Baba, won't you ever forgive him?" she asked, "Surely you can realise that he only killed Navin because there was no other option, because Navin had asked him to."

"No, Naina." Her mother replied, "If he's managed to prove Navin innocent now then it means that Navin didn't have to die. If he hadn't been killed then he might have lived to see this day." Upset, she walked out of the room, heading towards her bedroom.

"Look, Naina." Her father told her, "I know you're grateful to Captain Rajveer for everything he's done, but it would be best if you had as little to do with him as possible. He's still your brother's killer."

Naina felt like crying, but instead just mutely nodded. If she fought too much about it or let her parents know how she really felt, then they would take her out of the academy. Why couldn't her parents realise that there had been no other option, that Navin would have died regardless of anything Captain Rajveer had done. He had begged to be released from his suffering, and helpless to refuse him, his friend had done so.

All of Naina's earlier optimism began to slip away.

'Bhaiya,' she thought, 'If you were here then you'd be able to make them understand.'

But Navin wasn't, and the only person who could accomplish this task was Naina. It was going to be a long week indeed.

/

Raj tried not to mope, he really did. But there just didn't seem to be any point to being in the academy when Naina wasn't there. The last two days of the term only involved the usual exercises, with nothing special for him to concentrate on, and nothing to distract him. The day after Naina had left, Raj was at least happy to find out that she had topped all of the written tests and received good marks for the physical drills. It didn't help that whenever he began to get lost in his thoughts or his concentration wandered that he would regain his attention only to see Pooja Ghai giving him a knowing look as if she knew exactly what he was thinking about.

Although when he considered it, Pooja probably did know exactly what he was thinking about. After all, Naina had said that she had discussed her feelings with Pooja, and that Pooja had given her that advice.

Those words had echoed throughout Raj's head again and again. What would Navin have wanted for the two of them? What would he have thought Raj should do? Again and again, Raj came to the same conclusion. Navin would have been happy for them. Sure, he would want them to wait until Naina's training was finished, but in the end, he would've supported them. This thought at least assuaged some of Raj's guilt as he inched his way towards the decision he would need to take.

At the end of the second day all of the cadets left for their homes, and Raj realised that he would miss them almost as much as he was missing Naina. When all of his favourite cadets came to bid him goodbye, Raj noticed that Huda was quieter than usual and seemed to be looking at him in a thoughtful way, he just hoped that everything was fine with the young cadet. Aalekh and Yudi left together, both heading for Yudi's home as Aalekh had nowhere better to go. At least with this excuse he'd be able to spend some time with both Yudi and Neelu. Pooja hung back a little until the others left and then came forward to wish him goodbye.

"We'll all be back soon, Sir," she said, emphasising the word all. "I'll call Naina once I get home to let her know that she topped in the exams."

"Thanks, Cadet Ghai." Raj told her sincerely, and Pooja also left to catch her bus.

Raj didn't know how he was going to manage to spend the next week without losing his mind. He prayed for the strength to resist his desires, knowing that a large part of him didn't want those prayers to be answered.

/

Raj headed to the apartment he owned in Delhi, not wanting to stay in a place where everything reminded him of Naina. For the next five days he tried to keep himself busy. He planned his lessons for the next term, exercised, read books and visited old friends, all of whom remarked that he appeared to be much more distracted than he had ever been previously. Finally, he had to give in. He could not get her out of his mind. If this was his condition after one week, then how could he hope to spend an entire lifetime without her?

He considered their conversation in the café. She had said that they should wait until she finished her training to begin a relationship and he agreed, she didn't need anything distracting her from her studies and he didn't want to break any rules. But to be able to know that she was his, that would make a difference… To be able to look at her and know that in the future they could be together, he could be content to live for a year on that hope. The problem of her parents was more complicated, but would they really never give in? Would they never forgive him? Would their only child's happiness be less important to them than their hatred of him? He certainly hoped not. He knew he could never expect to share a good relationship with them, but he hoped that they would at least accept him for Naina's sake.

Only one week after Raj had decided that there could never be anything between them, and his resolve had crumbled. The effect that girl had on him was truly amazing. He needed to see her to tell her this. He needed to be near her, to look at her to his heart's content. But how? How could he manage to see her without her parents finding out? A plan began to form in Raj's mind. He would need help to accomplish it, and he knew the perfect cadet for the job.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

There were only four days remaining before Naina was due to return to the academy, and she was hoping that they would finish as soon as possible. As soon as the truth about Navin had been on the news, suddenly friends and relatives who had ignored them for years had started calling and visiting. Once it was proven that her brother hadn't been a traitor, it seemed that everybody wanted to know them again, and it frustrated her to need to sit with them making polite small talk. She had wanted to talk to her parents about Captain Rajveer again but hadn't had the courage, knowing that it would only lead to an argument. For the short time that she was with them, it would be far better to spend the time peacefully.

Naina was lying on the couch reading a novel when the phone rang. She didn't bother to get up and answer it, guessing that it was just going to be another lost acquaintance that had suddenly found them again.

She heard her mother answer the phone, but it was the next words that made her put down her book and sit down. "Naina?" her mother had said to the person on the other end, "Yes, I'll just go and get her."

Naina wondered who it would be. Raj wouldn't have dared to call. She just hoped that it wasn't Huda ringing up to bother her. The last thing she needed was for her parents to get the wrong idea about her liking him.

"Naina," her mother came into the lounge room looking for her, "Your friend Pooja is on the phone."

Naina got up quickly from the couch, excited. Pooja had called earlier in the week to let her know she'd topped the exams, but she had been missing her roommate and it would be good to hear the sound of her voice.

"Pooja, how are you?" she asked happily.

"My network is working well, I'm just happy I've gotten your connection! Listen, Naina, I've got some important work with you!"

"Important?"

"Yes, would your parents let you come to my house for a couple of days?"

"I think so, but why?"

"I'll tell you the reason in a minute, just see if they say yes first."

"Ma!" Naina called out, and waited until her mother came to stand in front of her before continuing. "Ma, Pooja wants me to come to her house for a couple of days, can I?"

"But why, Naina? We see you so seldom and we only have you for another four days…"

Naina didn't know the reason that Pooja was asking her to come, but she guessed it must be important. Besides that, as much as she loved her parents, she was dying to get out of the house.

"Actually Ma, Pooja's parents are trying to pressure her to get married. And she doesn't have the courage to tell them about a boy at the academy that she likes." Naina made up the lie quickly, remembering Pooja's conversation with her mother on the phone when they had been at the academy. "She wants me to come so that I can support her, and help her tell them the truth."

Naina could see that her mother was wavering, almost ready to give in. "Please, Ma," she added "I'll only be gone two days, we'll have the last two days together after that."

"Alright," her mother replied finally with a smile, "But only two days."

"Thanks Ma, you're the best!" Naina exclaimed, before turning back to the phone. "Okay Pooja, it's done."

"Fantastic! Now do you want to listen to the real reason why?"

"Of course, hurry up and tell me!"

"This morning, your Rajveer Sir called me on my mobile."

Naina was surprised, "What? Why?"

"Well because he couldn't call you of course." Pooja said it as if it was completely and utterly obvious. "He called me with this plan because he wants to meet you."

Naina smiled, even as her stomach started doing somersaults, it had to be good news…

"So then what's the plan…"

"Alright, so tomorrow you'll take the bus to…."

/

Naina had woken up at 5am the next morning, even though her bus wasn't leaving until ten. She was too excited to stay asleep so she had gotten up, showered and dressed. She chose her clothes carefully, making far more effort with her appearance than she generally would.

By 8am she had already eaten her breakfast, helped to wash up the dishes, and looked at the clock to check whether it was time for her to leave at least a hundred times.

"You really are looking forward to seeing Pooja, aren't you?" her mother had asked, sounding amused.

Naina felt a twinge of guilt about lying to her parents, but her heart forbid her to do anything else. She had to see him, she was going crazy wondering what he had decided and whether he would accept her suggestion or not.

Finally at 9:30am, Naina's father dropped her to the bus station.

"Have fun, Beti." Her father told her. Naina just hoped that everything would go alright.

Around lunchtime she got down from the bus in the town that Pooja had told her Raj would meet her in. Looking around, it didn't take her long to spot his jeep parked a short distance away. He seemed to spot her at the same time, climbing out of the jeep and waving a hand to let her know that it was him.

Naina had to stop herself from running over, she was so eager to see him. Walking fast, she quickly reached the jeep. There he stood in front of her, wearing a casual shirt and jeans, his hands stuffed in his pockets as if he didn't know what to do with them.

"Hi," Naina told him breathlessly, not quite able to believe that this was really happening.

She saw a hundred emotions pass over his face as he tried to decide how he should reply, but in the end he chose to be honest.

"I missed you, Naina." He told her.

Naina didn't need any further invitation; throwing her arms around him, she gave him a tight hug, leaning her head against his chest. Raj closed his arms around her, and buried his face in her shoulder as if inhaling her scent. They stood there for a moment, revelling in each others' warmth until Naina realised that they had begun to attract a bit of a crowd.

"Uh, maybe we should go somewhere else." She suggested, and Raj looked up to see a few curious faces looking at them.

"Get into the jeep." He told her, and as soon as she had sat down and done up her seatbelt, he drove away.

Eventually he pulled the jeep up to the side of the road in a secluded area and motioned to her to get out. Taking Naina's hand, he led her forward through the trees until they reached an open grassy area. Naina couldn't help but think that he must have known about this location before he brought her here. It was a beautiful place, without a single other person around.

They sat down on the grass with their legs out in front of them, Naina smoothing out her skirt nervously with her hands. Raj took in her appearance, his eyes devouring her as if it had been far longer than a week since he last saw her. He realised that he'd never seen her in any skirt except her army uniform before. It made her look more feminine, more like the girl Naina and less like the soldier Naina. He liked her hair like this, but he would prefer it if it was loose, unrestrained by any ties. That's when he had always felt it looked the most beautiful.

He reached over and took one of her hands in his, turning it over and using one of his fingers to trace the lines on her palm. He wanted to kiss her badly, but knew that they needed to talk properly first. Instead he contented himself with pressing a kiss onto her palm.

"I missed you." He told her, still holding her hand in his. He'd forgotten that he had already told her earlier. And when he had missed her so much, what was the harm in telling her twice, anyway.

"I missed you too," she murmured quietly, looking down to where he had entwined his fingers with hers. She was surprised by how much better she felt with even this small physical contact, but she couldn't allow herself to get distracted before she found out what she really needed to know. "What did you decide?"

"I've decided," Raj leaned over, one hand propped on the ground to support him, the other reaching out for her own hand, "Naina," slowly he leaned towards her, his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. "That I can't live without you." Slowly he leaned forward to kiss her, his lips pressing against hers gently. Releasing her, he moved his mouth to her ear and whispered to her, "I love you, Naina."

They were the words that she had been waiting to hear, the words that she had been praying for. Laughing with joy, Naina wound her arms around his neck, and brought his lips back to hers, kissing him soundly. "Well, Captain," she called him teasingly when they finally broke apart, "I love you too." He grinned at her, happiness shining out from his eyes.

"Remind me why we waited this long to come to this point?" Raj asked.

"Well, it doesn't really matter does it," she replied, "We've managed to get here now."

"And believe me, Naina," he told her, his eyes growing serious. "Once I've made a decision, I'll never take it back. You asked me to make this choice and I have, come what may, I won't be able to give you up."

Leaning over her, with one arm he lowered her to the ground until her head was resting upon the hill. Bending his head, he met her lips again, kissing her with greater fervour this time, her lips parting under the weight of his. Naina responded, learning fast and kissing him back with just as much passion. He lowered himself onto the ground beside her, his body kept slightly apart from hers, both of them lying on their sides. Reaching out a hand, Raj took the tie out of her hair, letting it fall around her face, and ran the fingers of one hand through it.

"I love your hair," he told her, twining a lock around one finger.

"I know you do," she replied, smiling.

"You know everything," he teased her, "So there's no need for me to tell you what else I love about you."

"I don't think it would hurt me to hear it." Naina replied mischievously.

"I love your spirit, I love your courage, I love your kindness," he told her seriously, punctuating each statement with another kiss. "I love every part of you, and I'm not sure how I could possibly stop." He placed a kiss to the curve of her neck, lingering against her softness, brushing his lips lower to her shoulder.

Naina sighed in what sounded like contentment, which was enough to encourage Raj not to stop. Disentangling his hand from her hair, he ran it down her arm until it came to rest on her hip. Then leaning forward he kissed her, starting slowly and gently. By now it seemed that Naina had more than learned the basics, deepening each kiss, clutching his shoulder tightly to retain a grasp on him. It was only when his hand slipped, brushing against her skin that Naina gasped.

The sound broke Raj from his spell and he quickly rolled away from Naina, groaning at his own stupidity. "I'm so sorry, Naina." He told her apologetically. "I'm going way too fast, aren't I?"

"No, it's…" Naina started to say, and then nodded, slightly embarrassed to admit it. "It's not that I don't want to, it's just that…"

Raj understood perfectly, she didn't need to say anything else. "I didn't mean things to go this far today, Naina, I really didn't. It's just that when I see you, especially when we're alone, I seem to lose all my self control."

She smiled at him shyly, "I think the same thing happens to me."

"I'll try harder in future," he promised her wryly, "Once we're back in the academy we'll have to be careful, I'll keep myself under good control."

Standing up, Raj brushed the grass off his pants and then offered a hand to Naina, helping her up. As she stood there, brushing down her skirt, he picked a few blades of grass out of her hair before bending down to find the tie that he'd taken out of it. Naina bound her hair again before they began to walk back to the jeep again, his hand around her shoulders.

"So what now?" she asked him.

"Now I take you to Pooja's."

"So I'm really going there?" Naina was surprised, she had thought that it had just been an excuse for her to come and see him.

"Well if you return back to your house now, your parents will know that it was a lie. And I certainly can't keep you with me for the next two days." He looked away from her quickly, his face growing warm, and Naina felt herself blush as well.

They sat down in the jeep and he started it, bringing it back onto the road.

"I forgot to ask," Raj began, not taking his eyes off the road. "What happened with your parents?"

Naina wished that he hadn't brought it up, but he had to find out some time.

"I think it's going to take awhile to convince them." She said with a sigh.

Raj reached out and grasped her hand with his, squeezing it before letting go and returning his to the steering wheel.

"Don't worry, Naina," he told her confidently, "What ever happens we're together in this."

Naina couldn't remember when the last time she felt this hopeful was. Despite all of the problems facing them, she couldn't stop herself from smiling, feeling as if she was so full of happiness that it might spill out of her.

Whatever challenges lay ahead, they would face them together. And that was all that mattered.

/

On the way they stopped for lunch, and Naina sent Pooja an sms to let her know what time they would be arriving.

While waiting for their food they started chatting; about Navin, about Raj's academy days, about when Naina was at college. She felt as if she was seeing a new side to him, one that was more relaxed and comfortable with her than he used to be. Once they were back in the car, Naina turned the radio on, occasionally humming along to favourite songs as they continued to speak, trading stories in turn. Finally, two hours later, they had reached their destination. Raj pulled the car over just before Pooja's house so that they could say goodbye properly in privacy.

He hugged her to him tightly, not wanting to let go, only releasing her after a few minutes.

"I want to kiss you," he told Naina, "But I'm afraid that once I start I won't be able to stop. And that might get Pooja's neighbours talking."

Naina giggled, "Well then, I suppose the next time I see you will be at KMA."

"KMA? Why did you remind me? I really had better kiss you one last time now then." Raj said mock seriously, knowing that he would have to keep himself under tight control once they were back.

He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips, resisting the impulse to deepen it. Leaning his forehead against hers for a moment, he smiled, looking into her eyes.

"I love you," he told her, "I'll see you on Monday."

"I love you too, Raj, I'll be back before you know it."

She grabbed her backpack and climbed out of the jeep, raising a hand in farewell as he drove away.

Then Naina walked towards Pooja's house and rang the door bell.

It was only a matter of seconds before the door was flung open and Pooja bounded out, throwing herself onto Naina in a warm hug.

"Oh Naina, I've missed you so much!" Pooja told her, "I swear that my parents haven't managed to catch my network properly since I've been back, at least you can make them understand."

Naina laughed, she had been missing Pooja too, but she hadn't expected this much of a welcome.

"Alright baba, just tell me what the problem is and I'll sort it out."

"Problem? What else, marriage. Ever since I came back for the holidays at least six boys have been to see me with their parents, and I can't stand it!"

Naina couldn't believe exactly how close her lie to her mother had been to the truth.

"Well, Pooja, now that I'm here I'll fix everything."

"Thanks doost," Pooja replied, "I managed to talk to Ali yesterday and he said that he was ready to talk to his parents. Now all I have to do is work out how to tell mine."

Naina put her arm around Pooja's shoulder, "Don't worry, now that Naina is here to help you, nothing can go wrong. But do you think that maybe we can go inside first?"

Pooja laughed, realising that she'd just been ranting to Naina on the front steps without even inviting her inside.

"I'm so sorry, Naina! And that reminds me, where's Rajveer Sir? Did he drop you off?" she gave Naina a meaningful look, "Did you get everything sorted out?"

A blush came to Naina's face and Pooja grinned, "Ai hai, you're so shy even when I mention his name. How are you going to get through the year at KMA like this?"

"Honestly, Pooja, I have no idea." Naina replied seriously, and they went inside.

After Naina had said hi to Pooja's parents and thanked them for allowing her to stay, the two girls headed up to Pooja's room so that they could talk properly. Naina hadn't had a chance to tell Pooja anything before she left, so she gave her an update of the situation between her and Raj, leaving out only the bits that she wasn't comfortable in telling, Pooja seemed to understand as she didn't press for details. When Naina was finished talking, Pooja hugged her.

"I'm so proud of you, Naina." Pooja told her, "You're so brave to be able to make a decision like that. And me… I can't even tell my parents about Ali." She sighed unhappily, "Just wait and see, as soon as you've left here, there will be more boys coming to see me."

"Not if I have anything to do with it, just wait and see what magic I weave at dinner tonight."

They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about the academy and their friends, remembering all the good times from their first year. Pooja had received an email from Yudi the previous day, apparently Aalekh was behaving so well that Yudi's parents thought he was the best son-in-law they could ever hope for. Only Yudi and Neelu knew that Aalekh would secretly drink once they'd gone to bed.

Naina became emotional after hearing this, "You guys are the best friends I've ever had, I don't know what's going to happen after we all leave KMA. We won't lose touch will we?"

"Of course not, Naina. Our connections with each other will always remain clear and strong." Pooja reassured her.

Finally it was evening and the girls headed downstairs to have dinner with Pooja's parents.

Just as Naina had suspected, Pooja's mother brought up the issue within five minutes of them beginning dinner.

"Naina Putar, why don't you convince Pooja to make a connection with somebody? She needs to delete Rohit from her memory and make a new entry in her phonebook."

"Auntyji, I think that Pooja is willing to make a connection with the right boy." Naina replied calmly, waiting to see what the reply would be.

"But we showed her six possible connections this week, and she didn't want to have talktime with any of them! You tell her that she should be trying harder, Naina."

Naina glanced over at Pooja, waiting for her permission before she spoke again. Pooja gave a small nod as if to say she trusted Naina to say the right thing.

"Auntyji, what if Pooja has already found a boy for herself?"

Pooja's mother's face lit up with joy, "Hai Rabba! Is this true? Nothing could be better than that, all we want is for her life to be settled." Putting down her fork, she stared at Naina, completely focused on finding out more. "Who is this boy?"

"Well, he studies with us at KMA. He's a very sweet and simple boy. He respects women a lot and he has loved Pooja for a long time. Everyone who knows him knows that he has a very pure heart. One day when he graduates he's going to be a wonderful officer."

"Who is it, do we know him?"

Naina was about to tell them when Pooja made a sign for her to stop. Naina sighed, thinking that Pooja had lost her courage, but then Pooja started to speak.

"His name is Ali, mummy, and I love him a lot." Then she stared down at her plate, too scared to say anything else.

Pooja's mother and father stared at her in astonishment, there was utter silence until Pooja's father spoke.

"And you never told us? For so many days we thought that you still loved Rohit, we brought so many boys to see you, and you never said anything?"

"I was scared, Papa." Pooja whispered, still not looking up from her plate, "I was afraid that you wouldn't be happy that I…"

"And why not?" Pooja's father asked, "He seemed like a very nice boy when we met him. If you've decided to make your connection with him then why should we object?"

"Really, Papa?" Pooja looked up, overjoyed, and seeing that her father was serious, she got out of her chair so quickly that it fell over and ran around the table to hug him. "And you, Mummy? Are you also happy?"

"Of course, Pooja." Her mother told her, getting emotional. "We were worried that you would never forget Rohit, all we wanted was that you should settle down with someone."

Pooja was so incredibly happy that she couldn't stay still for even a moment. "Oh Naina!" she exclaimed, grabbing Naina's hands and jumping up and down, "Thank you so much! I'm going to go and call Ali right now to give him the good news!" And she ran off to make the phone call.

Naina smiled, at least somebody's problems with their parents had been sorted out.

Pooja's parents smiled at each other, glad that their little girl was happy. In the distance they could all hear Pooja talking excitedly on the phone with Ali.

"So Putar, do you have a special connection with anyone?" Pooja's mother asked Naina.

Naina smiled. It was lucky that they didn't know the truth. "Yes Auntyji, I do. I just wish that my parents could be convinced as easily as you were."

"Just keep faith in God, Naina, everything will work out."

Naina certainly hoped so.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Raj arrived back at the academy one day earlier than the cadets would, and could barely contain his glee that the holidays were about to end. He had missed Naina terribly ever since he had dropped her at Pooja's house, and finally the next day his torment was about to end. He was so cheerful that he gave Suriji a hug when he saw him.

"How were your holidays, Suriji?" Raj asked him.

"They were fine, putar. Yours must have been good too, judging by how happy you are!"

"They certainly were, Suriji. Sometimes I think we all need a good holiday from KMA."

Raj spotted Major Nair, who had been staring at him with a suspicious look on his face, and decided that he'd better tone down his behaviour. He left the mess rather quickly to get away from the Major, afraid that he might somehow figure out the truth.

Raj was strolling down the corridor towards his office whistling, when Dr Shalini came out of the infirmary.

"Hi, Captain Shekawat!" She greeted him, then taking in his grin and the tune he had been whistling, she gave him a curious look. "It certainly seems like you had a good holiday."

"I did indeed, Dr Shalini." Raj replied, smiling, "How was yours?"

"Well, mine was fine but I don't think it matched up to yours by the look of things." She knew something had to have happened, the change in Raj was remarkable. Before the holidays he had been wandering around sadly as if somebody had run over his pet dog, and now he looked like he was on top of the world. "So what did you do on your holidays?"

"Uh," Raj started, and couldn't think of anything to tell her. "I, uh, went to Delhi. Saw some friends, read some books, you know… I have to go, Doctor." He added rather hurriedly and left there quickly.

Dr Shalini's nose for gossip never failed her. Something was definitely up and she was going to figure it out.

However by the end of the day she was just about ready to scream at Raj. He had wandered into her infirmary five times since the morning, usually just to fiddle with some of her medical equipment, start a short conversation about something unimportant and then walk out again whenever she tried to ask about his holiday.

It was 4pm and he had just walked in for the sixth time. Raj was examining her BP monitoring machine with great fascination when Shalini lost her cool. "Captain!" she exclaimed rather loudly to get his attention, and Raj looked up surprised. "Is there a reason why you keep wandering into my room? Do you have some type of problem that you need help with, or do you want to tell me something?"

Raj was conflicted, he desperately wanted to tell Dr Shalini the truth. He knew that if there was one friend of his who would understand, it would be her. However he was also afraid to tell her the truth in case she disapproved or told him that he had made a mistake. He really didn't need to hear that right now when he was so unsure himself of what he was doing. This was the debate that he had been having with himself all day, to tell or not to tell. Raj sighed, realised it was a bad idea and decided that he should leave the room before he said anything.

"Halt!" Shalini called out just before he reached the door and Raj froze where he stood before turning around to face her with a quizzical look on his face. "If you walk out that door right now without telling me what's going on, then you are not to come back in it until you're ready to say something. You're driving me crazy!" Shalini told him, well and truly exasperated.

She could see the war of emotions on Raj's face as he tried to decide what he should do. Finally he sighed, closed the infirmary's door and then walked over to her desk, collapsing into one of her chairs.

"Dr Shalini, I'm in love." He announced somewhat melodramatically and then crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her, waiting for her response.

Shalini rolled her eyes at his behaviour. "Well thank goodness it isn't anything more serious than that."

"More serious than this? This is very serious, Shalini! I have no idea what I'm doing and quite frankly I'm scared of how this will turn out." He sighed, becoming more serious. He really did need advice, and Shalini was the only person he could trust to confide in.

"So how far has it gone?" she asked him.

Raj looked at her in surprise, "Aren't you going to at least check who it is I'm in love with?"

"Raj, I'm not an idiot." Shalini told him, sounding as though she was offended. "And I'd have to be one not to have figured out who you were in love with by now."

"So then who is it?" Raj asked her, wanting to double check that Shalini and he really were on the same wave length.

"Naina, of course, who else?" Shalini told him, sitting down in the chair opposite his.

"So when did you figure it out?"

"If I'm honest, then after your solitary confinement. But I tried to convince myself that I was wrong, because I knew how disastrous it would be." She looked at him seriously, "Raj, it could still be disastrous for you."

"I know, Shalini." He looked downcast again, "And that's why I need advice from you, I need to figure out what I should do."

"Well then answer my earlier question, how far has it gone?"

"Quite far," Raj had wanted to leave it there but was shocked at the expression on Shalini's face, "Not that far! Please, Shalini, I'm not that type of guy."

"Thank god," Shalini muttered, "Or we really would have had something to worry about. In that case, can you please be a bit more specific about exactly how far it has gone?"

"She knows I love her, I know she loves me, we've made the decision that we want to be together after she graduates." Raj summed it up briefly, under no circumstances was he going to mention anything about kissing…

"And this happened on the holidays?"

"Yes." No need to go into further detail…

"And how did Naina's parents take it?"

"They don't know." Raj paused, and then decided that he might as well tell Shalini everything if he was going to receive meaningful advice. "And they can't know. They hate me."

"They hate you? Since when? I thought that they liked you, it seemed that way when they came to the academy."

"Are you ready to listen to a long story?" Raj asked Shalini.

"Always," she replied, and he began to tell her the entire truth.

/

By the end, she was entirely speechless. Then she reached over and impulsively gave him a quick hug.

"I had no idea," she told him, tears in her eyes. "To have kept that inside you for so long… And for Naina to forgive you and be brave enough to accept that she loves you… and her parents…"

Raj held up a hand to stop Shalini going over the story once again. "So what's your advice?"

Shalini thought for a moment before she replied. "Don't do anything that you can be court-martialled for." She finally told him with a small grin on her face.

"That's it? I just poured out my entire story to you, for you to tell me something that I'd already figured out?" Raj sighed, this had been a mistake to begin with. He shouldn't have said anything.

"Sorry," Shalini told him, "I'll try to be more serious. Look Raj, your relationship with Naina is not going to be easy. For one thing, you're both going to have to stop yourselves from doing anything that would expose you while she's at this academy. Next, you'll have to somehow win over her parents and that doesn't seem like it's going to be an easy task."

Raj nodded, he'd been thinking about these same problems over and over again without finding a solution.

"I can't help you with Naina's parents," Shalini informed him, "But I can do my best to stop anybody finding out about the two of you here, as long as you promise me that you won't do anything that you shouldn't be doing."

Raj blushed at this, he wasn't really that keen to be discussing that side of things with Shalini, even if she was a doctor and his friend. "Of course I promise, you know that I wouldn't compromise Naina in that way." Not to mention his own conscience or either of their careers.

"So then my advice to you is to try to act like nothing has changed," Shalini told him seriously, "Which means no more whistling as you walk down the hallway or hugging Suriji in the mess."

Raj wondered how she'd heard about that, but by now he'd realised that Shalini eventually heard about everything.

"Always try to be discrete and don't spend too much time alone together. As long as you and Naina can exercise some restraint and avoid anybody finding out about your feelings, then I can say with confidence," and Shalini took one of Raj's hands in hers, squeezing it for emphasis. "That you two will be one of the happiest couples I've ever seen. After everything you've been through together already, I'm sure that you can overcome any obstacles in the future."

"Thanks Shalini," Raj told her, "I think that I really needed to hear this from you. I was just feeling so nervous about everything, but now I think I can handle whatever comes."

She patted him on the shoulder and he got up to go, smiling at her with genuine affection.

"I'm glad that I've got a friend like you, Shalini," he told her, "It means a lot that I can come to talk to you about these things."

Shalini smiled as he walked out the door, whistling another tune. She was also glad, in these times genuine friends were hard to find.

/

The next morning Raj woke up at 5am as usual and went for a jog to try to clear away some of his nervous energy. By 6am he was finished, so he showered and changed before heading to the mess for breakfast. Ten minutes later Shalini joined him, sitting down opposite from him at the table.

"So do you remember the advice that I gave you?" She asked him quietly, making sure that no other faculty members would hear.

"Of course, Doctor." Raj replied, "Under no circumstances will I hug Suriji again." And he winked at her.

Shalini rolled her eyes at him. "Just make sure that you don't do anything to give yourself away when she arrives," she whispered, "and act normally."

Raj nodded, as hard as it would prove to be, he intended to do exactly that.

Eventually the clock struck 8 and all the cadets began to arrive, as Raj headed to the entrance hall to wait for his favourite six to appear. As he had predicted, Yudi and Aalekh arrived first, almost on the dot.

"What's up, boys?" he asked them, "You seem to be eager to get back to KMA."

"Do not ask, Sir!" Yudi told him melodramatically, "Only Aalekh and I know how we've endured the last nine days with my parents!"

For once Aalekh agreed with Yudi, nodding his head. "I only agreed to go to your house because Neelu asked. Next time I'm going to Huda's house." He announced, and walked off into the academy even as Yudi followed him yelling "Bro…. You can't do that to me! Don't make me go home alone next time!"

Raj chuckled, it was good to see both of them back in the academy, and now there were only four of his cadets remaining. Next Ali arrived, having gotten an auto from the station, and Raj was surprised to see Pooja get out of it along with him.

"Arre wah," he said to them teasingly, "I never realised that you could reach KMA from Kanpur and Jalandhar by the same bus!"

Ali blushed but Pooja wasn't in the least embarrassed. "Do you know, Sir, that our parents have agreed to our connection with each other! I was so happy that I thought I would wait for my Ranjha at the bus station, even though I had to be on hold for more than an hour!"

Raj grinned, happy that at least Ali and Pooja had managed to convince their parents to agree to their relationship. "Well congratulations to both of you, but make sure this doesn't get in the way of your training."

"Yes, Sir." Ali replied seriously, "I will train as hard as I always have and with just as much dedication."

"In fact we might even train harder now that we're not distracted by all these problems!" Pooja told him, giggling. Then she grabbed Ali's arm and they walked in together. Well Ali walked, Pooja appeared to be skipping.

It was a matter of minutes before the roar of a motorcycle announced Huda's arrival. He walked into KMA happily, carrying a large backpack over one shoulder.

"Rajveer Sir, you'll have to have one of my mummy's besan laddoos!" he told Raj, "In fact she's sent some halwa and other sweets too. I was thinking that if we all got together in the mess tonight for a beginning of second year celebration party then how would that be?"

"Cadet Huda, I think that sounds like a fantastic idea." Raj told him, "But make sure that there's no alcohol and that no rules are broken!"

Huda gave Raj an innocent look as if to say that he would never think of such a thing, but Raj just shot him a no nonsense look right back to say that he wasn't buying it. He was just about to elaborate on his warning when Naina walked into the doors of the academy.

It wasn't as if she had worn anything special or taken any particular care in her appearance, but to Raj she was the most beautiful sight he had seen in days. His face lit up as he waited for her to approach them.

As soon as Naina had entered the academy her eyes had searched for Raj, knowing that he would be somewhere here waiting for her. When she spotted him, a glow of happiness spread across her face and she quickly made her way over to where he stood with Huda. Both of them were so absorbed in their own thoughts that they didn't notice Huda watching them thoughtfully.

"Hi Huda," Naina said when she reached them, "Hi Sir, did you both have a good holiday?" She was determined to act normally, even though she couldn't stop herself from grinning.

Raj was struggling to behave normally, and felt he should respond but when he tried to say 'hi' it somehow came out as "Hai…" instead. "Uh, yes, Cadet Singh I certainly did. Cadet Huda was just telling me he had brought back some sweets from his holidays."

"Really?" Naina asked him, "Any besan laddoos?"

"Of course, Phoolan! I was just discussing with Sir about a party for tonight."

"Sounds great!" Naina told him, "As long as we all survive our first day back at KMA."

"I'll go see whether the rest of the boys are back yet." Huda said, and left them alone.

"So Sir," Naina began, a mischievous tone in her voice. "I heard that you had a good holiday."

"I most certainly did, Cadet Singh," he told her with a grin, "In fact I think that it was my best ever holiday."

"Well Sir, I enjoyed my holiday too."

"That's good to know, I believe that you went to visit your room mate Pooja Ghai?"

"I did indeed," Naina replied innocently, "I think that was the best part of the holiday."

Then seeing Dr Shalini approaching, Naina smiled one last time at Raj and then walked away, greeting Shalini as she walked towards the girls' hostel.

"Very well done." Shalini told Raj in an undertone, "I'm glad that you're not overdoing it."

"Just keep reminding me," Raj told her with a glint in his eyes, "No hugging Suriji."

Shalini laughed and together they headed back towards their offices.

The first day was mainly taken up by administrative duties. The first year cadets were all wandering around either wide eyed or with their chests puffed out as if they were waiting to prove themselves. Raj made sure that he introduced himself to as many as possible, not wanting to neglect them despite his obvious favouritism towards his special six. The second year cadets were given their new timetables and informed by Brigadier Chandook that they were now allowed to leave the academy on Sundays, an announcement that was met by universal cheers.

Lunchtime was the first opportunity that the six friends had to get together and discuss their holidays. Yudi and Aalekh's story provided the most laughs while everybody congratulated Pooja and Ali for their victory while applauding Naina's role in it. Naina of course did not mention anything about seeing Raj on the holidays.

After lunch there was a drill with Nair, where he complained that they'd all lost their strength and fitness over the holidays and sent them for a five mile run. It was after the run, while they all sat on the ground panting that Huda approached Naina.

"Phoolan, could I talk to you for a minute?" he asked her, "In private?"

Naina agreed reluctantly, she was afraid that he might want to propose to her again or tell her his feelings. When things had been sorted out with Raj so recently, this was really the last thing that she wanted.

They moved a short distance from the others and Huda began to speak.

"Phoolan, I realise I've been pursuing you like a crazy guy for more than a year now, but I've come to tell you that I've changed. I had a lot of time alone over the holidays with my buffaloes for company and I thought about this a lot. I know you're not interested in me that way and I don't know why I couldn't accept it earlier." Naina was shocked at the way this conversation had turned out, and her face must have shown it, "You'll always be special to me Naina, but from now on I'm going to try to be a proper friend to you and leave this behind us. Will you be my good friend, Naina? I promise that from now on I'll be your best friend, and not your admirer, because I've realised that's what you need me to be."

Naina was so touched by Huda's short speech that tears came to her eyes.

"Huda," she told him, "Today I think I can finally say that I know you've grown up. Of course I'll be your friend." And she reached out and gave him a quick friendly hug.

"Now that we're friends, Phoolan." He continued seriously, "I want you to tell me honestly, is there somebody that you love?"

Naina decided that it was best not to deny it. "Yes Huda, there is." She told him.

He nodded but didn't ask who, Naina wondered if he had already guessed.

"Then I hope you two will be very happy together, and I can promise you that this Amardeep Huda will support both of you whatever happens."

Naina hugged him again, knowing that Huda had somehow figured out the truth. She was amazed at how mature he had become, the holiday had done him a world of good.

"What's up, guys?" Yudi asked as they returned, confused by all the hugging.

"Well," Naina said with a smile, "From today, Huda and I are officially friends."

"And since from today onwards I am no longer chasing Phoolan, I think I should go and welcome some of the female first year cadets!" Huda said mischievously and walked off towards the academy with a grin on his face.

"That guy will never change." Yudi remarked, shaking his head in disbelief.

Naina laughed, unable to believe how well today was going. "If he changed, then would he be Huda?" The rest of them began laughing too, agreeing with her statement.

"So guys," Yudi said, "I hear there's going to be a party tonight…."

/

It was eventually decided that with Major Nair in the academy a party in the mess would be too risky, and so Raj's room was 'volunteered' as the party's location. Of course Raj didn't actually find this out until half an hour later when Huda informed him that that was where the party would be.

Luckily Raj was still far too happy to mind his room being volunteered without his permission and agreed without any hesitation. They had also invited Dr Shalini who was thrilled at the idea of a party, and while they had considered inviting Suriji too, Pooja had pointed out that then they would have to invite Lolitaji as well, who with her strict personality wasn't likely to approve of a party.

Everybody was scheduled to begin arriving at Raj's room at 8pm, and they would all be arriving one by one to avoid any suspicion. However Raj wasn't at all surprised when he heard the first knock on his door ten minutes before the hour, immediately guessing who it would be.

Opening the door he grinned at the first arrival. "Well if it isn't Cadet Naina 'Ah' Singh standing at my door. Aren't you a bit early for the party?" he asked her teasingly. She had changed into her usual salwar kurta and her hair was loosely plaited.

"My mistake, Sir." She replied back in the same tone of voice, "I'll just leave and come back again in ten minutes."

As she turned to go, he quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her inside the room and shutting the door behind her. The motion was so fast that there wasn't even time for Naina to blink. Placing the palms of his hands to either side of Naina, Raj effectively trapped Naina between himself and the door.

"No so fast, Cadet Singh." He told her, "I never said that I wasn't happy you had arrived early."

"I'm not so sure, Sir." She joked with him, "Maybe I should go and come back, after all, what could we possibly do alone together in the ten minutes before everybody arrives?"

Raj looked at her intensely, leaning in even closer. "Cadet Singh, I can think of hundreds of things I could do alone with you in the next ten minutes."

Naina raised her eyebrows at this comment, "Sir!" she exclaimed, pretending to be shocked, "Really, is that the only thing you can think of?"

"Argh, I didn't mean it that way, Naina!" Raj said, getting flustered, "It really wasn't supposed to sound that way. I don't know what happens to my brain and my mouth when I'm alone with you that everything comes out wrong!"

Naina giggled, "I was just joking, Raj. I know you didn't mean it like that."

Raj gave her a look that would make any girl melt, "Naina, I missed you so much." He told her.

"It's only been a few days since we saw each other." She informed him with a smile.

"So that means that you didn't miss me?"

"If I said I didn't miss you… then I would be lying." She told him with a grin. Raj grinned back and hugged her tightly before lifting her off the ground and swinging her around while Naina hold on tightly to him, laughing. Finally he placed her back on the ground and released her.

"So I believe that we were discussing what we could do alone together in the next ten minutes." He informed her.

"Well, perhaps a practical demonstration would help." Naina suggested, putting her arms around his neck and tilting her head up to his. Raj placed his hands on her hips and was just bending down to kiss her, his lips about to graze hers when suddenly there was a knock on the door. The two of them released each other and Naina hurried over to sit down in one of his chairs as Raj swore under his breath before fixing a smile on his face and opening the door.

"Hi Sir!" Yudi said brightly, "I hope we're not too early, but it's only a few minutes until 9, so I thought we might as well come now," and he wandered in past Raj, followed by Dr Shalini who gave him an apologetic look as if she had guessed that they had interrupted something.

"No problem, Yudi." Raj told him, "Naina just arrived a couple of minutes ago and we were discussing plans for the party."

"Oh hey, Naina," Yudi said and wandered over to sit with her, completely unaware that anything had been going on before his arrival.

'Sorry', Shalini mouthed at Raj but he just shrugged to show that he wasn't too annoyed, giving her a wry smile. She handed him a bottle of wine and was also carrying some cushions.

"What are those for?" Raj asked her,

"Well in case you haven't noticed, you don't have that many chairs, Captain." She informed him, "These are for the people who will be stuck sitting on the floor."

One by one the rest of the cadets arrived, Pooja had brought some cds with her, Huda had brought his sweets, Ali some soft drink and Aalekh… well he had brought some alcohol in his hip flask, but neither Raj nor Shalini could see any point in telling him that he shouldn't have.

They pushed the chairs and table back and all sat in a circle on the floor with their cushions as Pooja put some music on. Everybody was having a good time, laughing and chatting and telling more stories about their holidays. Huda was more than happy to update everybody about how his buffaloes were doing.

"Okay guys," Yudi finally said, "I think we should have a toast. Firstly to our second year at KMA, may it be as fun and as successful as the first! Secondly, to Ali and Pooja, for finally making their 'connection' official!" Everybody clapped and cheered at this while Huda whistled. Pooja looked ecstatic while Ali was slightly embarrassed but looked happy anyway.

"And now to celebrate," Huda announced, "I think that the happy couple should dance together!"

There were shouts of 'yeah!' from all those assembled, except for Ali who was trying to refuse.

"Oh come on, Ali," Pooja told him, "I know you're a good dancer, there's nothing to be shy about in front of our friends!" Ali eventually gave in, not able to deny Pooja anything that she wanted, and everybody cheered as he waltzed her around the room.

"Excellent!" Yudi exclaimed, "Dancing was just what this party needed!"

"Of course," Huda said slyly, "Doesn't everybody remember our Captain's dance from the fresher's ball? Don't you think that he should show us his skills again?"

"No way, Cadet Huda!" Raj said resolutely, "I am not doing another filmi dance for you guys, and if I tried to in this room then I would probably just end up breaking the furniture."

"Oh come on, Captain," Shalini told him, "No filmi numbers, just show the cadets how an officer should dance."

"Dr Shalini in case you haven't noticed, you need a partner for that type of dancing. Are you volunteering?"

"No way!" Shalini replied, "I might have only had one glass of wine, but I was never good at that type of dancing even when I haven't had alcohol. Get Naina to dance with you instead."

Naina started to protest at this, that she was too tired, that she wasn't a good dancer, but Pooja and Shalini pushed her up off the floor even as the boys also dragged Captain Rajveer up.

"Well okay then," Raj said, "If you all insist." And bowing to Naina he offered his hand. She was laughing as she took it and Raj began to dance her around the room, occasionally spinning her around. It wasn't a particularly romantic dance but they enjoyed themselves, laughing. The rest of the cadets clapped along to the rhythm of the music, laughing with them. Aalekh was relieved to see that for once there wasn't a look of jealousy on Huda's face but one of simple enjoyment. He realised that Huda really had made a decision to get over his obsession with Naina. Naina might not have said anything to Aalekh yet, but he had already guessed that something must have changed. He had never seen his friend as happy before as she was tonight. Whatever had happened between her and Rajveer Sir was their business, Aalekh just hoped that Naina's sorrows were finally over.

Finally at the end of the song, Raj dipped Naina down before bringing her up again rather quickly. Laughing, she placed a hand to her head, dizzy due to the sudden movement. His hand around her waist to support her, he guided her back to the circle and they sat back down. The party settled down into the previous conversation and joking until Shalini realised that it was quite late and the cadets should return to their rooms.

All of them left at the same time, still chatting, as Naina threw a glance over her shoulder at Raj smiling at him. He smiled back and then closed the door behind them, heading towards his bedroom.

In the corridor outside the cadets said goodnight to Dr Shalini and then headed towards their hostels. Still humming to herself, Naina prepared for bed and then turned out the light.

"Everything's going so well, Naina." Pooja told her sleepily, "I just know that this year will be better than the last one."

"I hope so, Pooja." Naina told her, even as her eyes began to close, "Finally we're all half way towards our goals. It can only get better from here on in."

/

The next day the cadets were exercising in the gym during their free period when suddenly Huda spoke up.

"Guys, we've forgotten something important! We're letting down a great tradition of KMA!"

"What the hell are you talking about, bro?" Yudi asked him, honestly not able to think of anything they'd forgotten.

"Ragging!" Huda said, rubbing his hands together in glee.

"Oh no, I did not just hear you say that, Huda." Yudi exclaimed, "I can't believe you!"

"Oh come on, guys! Weren't we ragged when we arrived at KMA? We can't let this tradition die."

"We?" Ali asked, "I don't remember you being ragged, I remember you helping to rag us. And after that ragging I ended up in the infirmary."

"And I ended up in solitary confinement." Aalekh added.

"Look, ragging doesn't mean that we have to do something horrible to the new cadets, but at least they should have to pass through some rite of passage."

Pooja shrugged, "Huda has a point. As long as we don't do anything bad to them, I don't see that it could harm them."

Once Pooja had agreed, it wasn't too long before Ali changed his mind. Aalekh soon agreed too, and while Naina and Yudi resisted for awhile, they eventually gave in.

"So what's the plan then?" Yudi asked, and they began whispering among themselves. Soon the plan was told to the rest of the second year cadets and that night the first year cadets all received notes that Brigadier Chandook wanted them to assemble at the parade ground at 10pm. Naina wondered whether they would all really be naïve enough to fall for it, until Huda pointed out that both of them had fallen for a note like that.

One by one the new cadets all assembled, looking slightly confused and talking amongst themselves about why BC might have called them there.

"Hello everyone!" Huda said, stepping out of the shadows with the rest of the cadets, "We, your seniors called you here, not BC. So get ready for your ragging!"

There was some initial signs of alarm among the cadets until Naina stepped forward to reassure them, "Don't worry guys, this isn't going to be a bad ragging. Nobody is going to get hurt or humiliated."

"Well not unless they fail our tasks!" Huda added mischievously, and then suddenly spotting a girl in the crowd he had seen the day before… "Hey beautiful, do you remember me? You don't need to do these tasks, you can…"

"AHEM" Pooja said loudly, and kicked Huda in the leg.

"We will now tell you what your tasks are," Yudi said "First, you will be divided into teams of three and will all have to complete an obstacle course that we've set up. When you reach the other end, Aalekh will be standing there with a jar and you will pull out a piece of paper which will have three items listed on it. You can find these three items somewhere in the academy. However you have only one hour to accomplish both these tasks. If your team fails to do so, then you'll have to serenade your seniors in front of everybody!"

Some of the cadets turned pale at the thought of this, but most were thinking that this ragging wasn't turning out to be so bad after all, it might even turn out to be fun.

Pooja announced who was in each team, and the new cadets raced off to complete the obstacle course. As the teams finished one by one, they came to collect their pieces of paper from Aalekh. Each team would have to collect three items, two of them were easy, but one would have to be gotten from a faculty member. Naina really pitied the team who were supposed to get the item from Major Nair…

Finally all the cadets raced off, except for the team of the girl who Huda had been flirting with earlier. "Hey beautiful," he called out to her, "Which piece of paper did you get?" Deciding that she could use this to her advantage, she showed the paper to him.

"Hmmm, Captain Rajveer's watch?" Huda said thoughtfully, "Do one thing, just go and ask the Captain for it. Tell him that Naina wants him to give it to you."

The girls nodded and quickly ran off.

Raj was just about to go to bed when he heard a knock on the door. He raised an eyebrow upon opening it to see three girls that he didn't know standing there, obviously new cadets.

"Sir! Sir!" One of them said breathlessly, "Could we have your watch please?"

"My watch?" Raj asked, confused. "Who are you and what do you want my watch for?"

"Sir, we're first year cadets and we're being ragged! If you give us your watch then we can complete the scavengers hunt!"

Raj stared at them in disbelief, not able to believe that they were actually asking him to give up his watch.

"Sir, please," the girl Huda liked suddenly said, "Naina wants you to give it to us!"

"She does?" Raj was getting confused, but decided that if Naina wanted him to give up his watch then he might as well. Taking it off his wrist he handed it over. "Just make sure it comes back to me in exactly the same condition."

The girls laughed, excited that they'd managed to complete their mission.

"Sir, who's Naina?" One of them asked.

"Well, Naina is my protégé." Raj replied slightly flustered, "My best cadet." Then he suddenly realised what they had asked, "Hang on, didn't you say that Naina wanted me to give this to you?"

Realising their mistake, the girls ran away quickly, leaving Raj staring in their direction with a bemused look on his face.

Finally the hour was over and while most teams had returned successful, some others hadn't. As expected, those who weren't successful hadn't managed to get the items from the staff members. There sitting in front of the senior cadets was Captain Rajveer's watch, a pair of Dr Shalini's shoes, a turban cloth from Suriji and a shirt from Lolita Ma'am among other items. The only two unsuccessful teams were those who had been sent to get Major Nair's cap and a pen from BC. Naina suspected that both teams may have actually been too scared to even try.

"Alright, time to sing!" Huda announced gleefully, looking forward to seeing the cadets embarrassing themselves. The first group wasn't too bad, in fact one of them even seemed to enjoy singing. However when the second group started to perform they were so terrible that everybody put their hands over their ears.

"Stop!" Pooja yelled, "You all need to change your ring tones. This is meant to be your punishment and you're punishing us instead!"

After this they sent all of the first years to bed, hoping that the ragging had at least helped them to make some friends and get used to life in the academy. After the ragging that they had all suffered last year, none of them had wanted to force that experience onto anybody else.

The second years then gathered up all of the items that the first years had brought for them, intending to put them back where they belonged. Sensing a good opportunity, Naina quickly grabbed Raj's watch.

"I'll just return this to Captain Rajveer." She announced, running off quickly with it.

Pooja smirked, "Yes, he must be waiting very restlessly for it." She commented, giggling. Ali shook his head and gave her a look that clearly said he didn't think she should be gossiping like that. Pooja just made a face back at him.

Naina reached Raj's door breathless after running most of the way, she knocked quietly, not wanting to wake up any other faculty members such as Major Nair.

Raj opened the door quickly, and then leaned against the door frame with a lazy smile on his face.

Naina held out his watch, smiling back at him.

"So Cadet Naina 'Ah' Singh has come to return my watch," he told her teasingly, "Why don't you come inside so that I can thank you properly?"

Checking the corridor to ensure that nobody was watching, Naina stepped into his room and Raj pushed the door shut.

"So did you really want me to give my watch to those cadets?" he asked her.

"What are you talking about?" Naina asked, confused, "I just came to give it back to you."

"They said that you wanted me to give it to them" Raj informed her, moving to the bench to pour her a glass of water.

"But I never…" Naina thought about it, remembering that Huda had been flirting with one of the girls earlier. "Never mind Sir," she told him, having figured it out, "It was just Huda trying to win over one of those girls by making the task easier for her."

Raj smiled, thinking that Huda would never change, and handed a glass over to Naina which she began sipping.

"So you ragged the first years tonight?" he asked, and sitting down on the chairs together, they talked about what had happened that night, comparing it to when Naina's batch first arrived in the academy.

When Naina had finished her glass, she reluctantly put it down on the table and got up to leave. "I think I'd better go. It's quite late already."

"Don't go yet," he told her, disappointed that they hadn't been able to spend much time together, "You can stay for awhile longer."

"Of course," Naina said mischievously, "I can even fall asleep here again and then tomorrow morning when Major Nair sees me coming out of your room, you can explain to him what I was doing there."

"Fine," Raj sighed, "I'd better let you go then. You've got to get up early tomorrow anyway and it's nearly midnight. But don't think that I'm going to let you go just like that."

"And what is it that you plan to do before I return to my room?" Naina asked, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

Raj walked towards her, reaching out and pulling her to his chest.

"At least let me kiss you once, Naina." He said, resting his forehead against hers. "Who knows when we'll get the chance to meet each other again like this, your training is going to get even harder now, and there will be even less chance for privacy."

"Alright," Naina agreed, trying to sound as if she was slightly reluctant, "Just one kiss then."

"Just one?" Raj sounded disappointed.

Naina nodded, knowing that he could see the way her eyes were sparkling.

"Well then I'll have to make it a good one." Raj told her seriously and dipped his head down toward her, capturing her lips and kissing her until they were both breathless.

"Well," Naina said slyly when he was finished, "Maybe just one more wouldn't hurt too much."

Grinning, Raj bent down to kiss her again, then hugged her to him, swaying from side to side with her slightly as if they were dancing.

"Okay, you'd better go now before I really do decide to keep you here for the night." He told her, still hugging her.

"Raj, to do that you'll have to let go of me first." Naina informed him.

"Of course." Raj let go of her with a grin and walked her to the door.

"Good night, Raj." She told him as he opened it.

"I'll see you in class tomorrow, 'Cadet' Singh." He told her, trying to sound serious. "And don't think that you're going to get any special treatment. If I catch you day dreaming then you'll be given a detention."

"Then stop giving me things to day dream about." She replied cheekily and leaning up, pecked his lips quickly before running off.

Raj closed the door after her and leaned against it, unable to stop himself from smiling. The real challenge was going to be how he could stop himself from day dreaming in class the next day.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

The next few months passed by quickly. Now that they were in their second year, the cadets were even busier than ever. This year everybody knew how important their performances in both drills and exams would be, so they were putting in extra effort. In whatever free periods they had, they would gather in either the library or the cafeteria, studying and trying to help Aalekh with his English, which still had a long way to go.

Unfortunately for Raj and Naina, this meant that they were lucky if they were able to meet alone even for a few minutes once a week. He didn't want to distract her from her training, and they were both conscious that they shouldn't be caught by anybody. Raj didn't mind too much, he thought it was probably lucky since if he had been able to meet her alone more often, he might have had trouble controlling himself. This way they could take their romance slowly, savouring their time together as truly special.

Even though they didn't have much time to be alone together, when Raj was free he made a point to come and sit with Naina and the rest of the cadets while they were studying in order to help them and answer any questions they might have. Of course, it also allowed him to sit there watching Naina while she studied, deep in concentration. Occasionally she would glance up to see him watching her and would smile at him secretly. The rest of the cadets would usually then exchange knowing glances, everybody having realised that something was going on. Nobody except Pooja knew exactly what was between them, but they all assumed that there was now some type of understanding between Naina and Raj.

Naina was just relieved that nobody was upset or angry about the relationship. She still had painful memories of what had happened after they had arrived back from the mentorship camp and the misassumptions that had been made then.

Today they were all sitting in the mess doing their homework when Raj walked in whistling cheerfully. "Suriji, please get all of the cadets a coffee on my behalf." He said happily, before coming to sit with Naina and her friends, taking a seat next to Aalekh.

"What's up, Sir?" Yudi asked him, "You look rather happy today."

"I have an announcement to make to all of you," Raj told them, looking directly at Naina the whole time. Naina knew what he was about to say, as Raj had told her that this would be happening soon. "Due to my success with saving the triggers and exposing the traitors, my promotion has been approved." Claps and whistles broke out at this, and all of the cadets jumped out of their chairs and came over to hug Raj and congratulate him.

"Alright guys, alright!" he practically had to yell to get them to be quiet. Naina looked on with a huge grin on her face, unable to express how proud she was. "But I know that I could never have achieved this without your support and help, so first of all I want to thank all of you, and let you know that I've made headquarters aware of your roles in the shifting of the triggers. It will go on your records, and will hopefully help you once you graduate from here." This was met with more cheers and Huda and Ali pulled Raj up from his chair and placed him on their shoulders, carrying him around the room. Even Suriji joined in, cheering them on. Finally when everybody had calmed down, they went back to their seats.

"Do you know what the best part of this is?" Huda asked them all.

"Well obviously, that our Shahrukh is now a Major!" Pooja exclaimed.

"He'll get paid more." Aalekh pointed out, which everybody groaned at.

"No," Huda replied, "That he won't have to salute Mucchad anymore, or listen to what he says." This comment was met by laughter from the rest of the cadets, all of whom agreed that this was a very good point.

"But Sir, you won't be leaving us now that you've gotten a promotion will you?" Ali asked him.

Naina had been thinking about this herself, praying that it wouldn't be the case. She knew that while Raj was her teacher they had to keep their relationship secret, but she also knew that she needed him there with her, that all of the cadets did.

"No," Raj replied, "I requested my seniors that I be allowed to stay in KMA until you all graduate and they agreed, however almost immediately afterwards I'll leave for my new posting."

Saying this he looked at Naina, trying to work out how she was feeling about it. Naina was both relieved and disturbed, relieved because he wasn't going to be leaving her just yet, and disturbed because she didn't know what the future would bring. What if his new duty was dangerous, what if she didn't see him for months and months, what if…

Naina forced herself to calm down, there were still many months left until they graduated KMA and Raj would be with them until then. She would just have to make the best of their time together until he left.

Two days later there was a small ceremony in KMA as Brigadier Chandook pinned the sign of his new rank onto Raj's uniform. He had received the well wishes of everyone in KMA, including the first year cadets who had also grown to love Raj. The only person who wasn't happy was Major Nair, who was not looking forward to having to treat Rajveer as an equal.

After the ceremony all of Raj's cadets came up to congratulate him, shaking his hand and hugging him.

"That's it, Sir, you can't refuse!" Yudi told him.

"Refuse what?" Raj asked, slightly confused.

"You have to give us a treat! After all, you said yourself that it was partly because of us that you got the promotion."

Everybody else began agreeing with Yudi loudly, telling Raj that he should do something for them.

Laughing, he held up his hands to stop them from saying anything more.

"Okay, okay, I'll give you a treat. What do you want?"

"Well Sir, it's Saturday today," Huda pointed out, "Meaning that we're allowed to leave the academy tonight. Why don't you take us somewhere outside tonight to celebrate?"

Raj hesitated slightly, remembering the last time that all of the cadets had left KMA together and gone to the Dabba, however it was Naina's slight nod and smile that convinced him he should agree to their plan.

"Okay guys, then all of you be ready by 7pm tonight. I'll take you outside the academy and treat you to dinner."

"Yay!" Pooja cheered, "This is going to be the best outgoing ever, I don't know how I'm going to put myself on hold until then!"

Raj just shook his head in disbelief, sometimes he wasn't sure how the rest of them managed to understand her so well.

"Well then, we'll all see you at 7pm… Major Rajveer." Naina told him, her happiness and pride evident, and the way that she said his name warmed his heart. Suddenly Raj was very, very glad that he'd agreed to this plan. Because tonight he would get a chance to spend time with Naina outside the academy, where he wouldn't have to worry about somebody seeing them.

He couldn't wait for the clock to strike 7.

/

By 6pm all of the cadets were in their rooms getting ready for the night ahead of them. Naina was glad that she and Pooja had gone shopping for clothes when they had been together during the holidays, otherwise she would've had nothing suitable to wear. She couldn't believe how excited and girlish she felt, as if she was a teenager getting ready for her first date. It wasn't even as if her and Raj would be alone, considering that all of her friends would be there too, with Neelu and Dr Shalini as well. Pooja and Naina were glad she was coming along, sometimes they got sick of being the only girls in a crowd full of boys.

For the next hour or so, they acted like typical young girls getting ready to go out, trying to work out which jewellery and shoes would go well with their outfits and how they should do their hair and makeup.

"You know Naina," Pooja told her, as they were both getting ready, "I've really missed doing this since I left Punjab University. I used to really enjoy getting dressed up and going out with my friends."

"Me too, Pooja." Naina agreed with her, "I know that we're training to be soldiers, but surely there can't be anything wrong with dressing up once in awhile."

She was surprised by how normal it made her feel, by how normal her life could be. After everything that had happened, it was a relief to know that she could sometimes be a girl like any other.

At five to seven, Raj was already waiting by his jeep, where they had agreed to meet. It wasn't long before the boys joined him, and a few more minutes after that, Dr Shalini arrived.

"You look very nice, ma'am." Yudi told her.

"Thank you, Cadet Yudi, that's very sweet of you." She replied, smiling at him.

Raj checked his watch, it was already seven and Naina and Pooja had yet to appear. What could be taking them so long?

Seeing his expression, Shalini smiled, "Major, they're girls." She informed him, "They're going to take longer than you to get ready."

"Oh come on," Huda replied, "Are we going to wait for them all night? Somebody should go and get them."

"I'll do it," Shalini volunteered, and left to get the girls.

A few minutes later she returned with them, and Raj had to admit, they had both put their time to good use. The rest of the boys obviously agreed, as Huda let out a whistle which made both Pooja and Naina laugh.

Ali was staring at Pooja as if transfixed, not able to believe how beautiful she looked. Pooja quickly walked over to join him, she didn't mind that Ali hadn't said anything yet. She knew he was too shy to say anything in front of the others, and the look on his face was all the praise she needed.

As for Naina…

Raj had always known she was beautiful, but he could tell that tonight she had made an effort. She wasn't overdressed or wearing too much make up, but it had always been the simplicity of her beauty that he had loved. She had kept her hair loose, and he knew that she had done it for him.

Raj couldn't tell Naina what he thought in front of everybody else but he gave her a look which clearly said he couldn't wait to get her alone later on. Naina blushed and looked away, which was noticed by Shalini. She nudged Yudi and they grinned at each other.

Everybody piled into the jeep, allowing Shalini to sit in the front seat beside Raj since she was their teacher. The ride was fairly uneventful, except for Pooja and Aalekh getting into a fight because he had accidentally stood on her foot while getting into the back. Raj turned the radio on, and they clapped and sung along to some of the songs, all of them excited about a night outside of the academy. On the way they picked up Neelu, making the back of the jeep even more squashed, which also made it even more fun as they all laughed, trying to make room for each other.

Raj drove them to a restaurant on the outskirts of Ambala where there would also be a live band later that evening so that they could dance. He intended to make it as good a night as possible for all of his cadets. Not just Naina, all of them had a special place in his heart. He was so proud of the way they'd matured over the last year and knew they were going to become great soldiers. They deserved to enjoy themselves once in awhile.

Raj told them to order whatever they wanted off the menu, and everyone started deciding what they wanted, with Huda listing the most expensive dishes.

"Dude!" Yudi, who was sitting next to him hissed, "Don't take too much advantage of your teacher!"

"Arre Yudi-o," Huda said, in that confident way of his, "I'm not taking advantage of my teacher, I'm taking advantage of our Phoolan's boyfriend." Unfortunately he said it a bit louder than he'd intended and the whole table heard. Raj choked on the water he'd been drinking, and began a coughing fit, leading Naina to start rubbing his back to try and get him to stop.

Everybody else tried not to laugh as Neelu leaned closer to Aalekh and whispered, "Major Rajveer is Naina's boyfriend, since when? Now that's hatke."

"I'll tell you about it later." Aalekh whispered back, and then trying to distract everyone from what had just happened said, "So Sir, can we have alcohol too?"

Raj stopped coughing at this and said, "Most definitely not, Aalekh. You can drink if you want to, but I'm not going to encourage you to do so by paying for it."

"But Sir," Huda said sounding disappointed, "What about a toast?"

"We'll have one with soft drink." Raj replied, in a tone that said he wasn't going to argue about this. "I clearly remember what happened the last time you all went out of the academy and got drunk, and I'm not beating up any bikers tonight."

Everybody laughed at this except Shalini and Neelu who had no idea what they were talking about, which led to the story being explained.

"So that's why you kept going into the bedroom while we were there!" Shalini exclaimed, finally understanding.

The food arrived then and everybody started eating. They made a couple of toasts (Aalekh grumbling about the fact that he had to do it with soft drink) and by the time they had finished the band had started playing.

"Okay guys, we've got to be back in the academy by 11pm, so do whatever you like until 10:30pm when we'll be leaving." Raj then thought about what he had just said, "And by anything you like, I mean anything except getting into any fights."

Aalekh and Neelu were the first to leave the table, heading over to the bar. It didn't take long after that for Huda to spot a couple of girls sitting by themselves and go over to flirt with them. Ali and Pooja were talking quietly and thinking about going to dance, while Shalini and Yudi were chatting. Raj thought that it was the right moment and that Naina and he could finally leave. He turned to find Naina watching the band, and humming along to the song.

"Want to go for a walk?" Raj asked, Naina smiled and nodded her head.

Raj tapped Shalini on the shoulder, "We're just, uh, going for a walk." He explained, "Could you keep an eye on everybody else while I'm gone."

"Sure," Shalini replied with a smile, "Enjoy yourselves and make sure you don't go too far." Raj groaned at the double meaning in her words, giving her a look that clearly said he wasn't amused.

He offered a hand to Naina, who took it shyly, checking to see that nobody was watching them first. She needn't have worried, nobody except their friends recognized them here, and their departure didn't cause the slightest bit of notice.

They walked through the restaurant's gardens until they were far enough away that the band's music could barely be heard. The night air was slightly cold and Naina shivered, her dress not protecting her from the cold.

Taking his jacket off, Raj offered it to Naina which made her laugh even as she accepted it and put it on.

"What are you laughing about?"

"Just that it's a very romantic thing for you to do." She said, smiling at him teasingly.

"Oh, so you think that I don't know how to be romantic," he teased her back, taking a step closer. "Well, madam, I think that perhaps it's time for me to show you exactly how romantic I can be."

Laughing, Naina went to take a step away, intending to make him chase her, but her heel got caught in the grass and fell off her foot.

Raj quickly reached her, and placed his hands on her back under the coat, pulling her closer to him.

"Raj, my shoe…" Naina whispered, already half distracted by the intense way he was looking at her.

"Just forget about the shoe." He told her, and pulled her even closer until her body was flush against his, her hands winding around his waist.

Bending down, he quickly captured her lips with his, kissing her deeply. Naina forgot all about her shoe, and the fact that her foot was becoming wet on the grass and kissed him back, allowing herself to be lost in the feeling as heat spread throughout her entire body.

Finally breaking away, Raj took one of his hands from her back to entangle his fingers through her hair. "You look beautiful," he whispered to her, "You knew I would want your hair to be loose didn't you?"

Naina smiled, an obvious yes. Brushing her hair back from her neck with his hand, he leaned forward and kissed her just beneath her jaw, where he could feel her pulse beating rapidly. Leaning his head against her, his mouth close by to her temple, Raj swayed back and forth with her, moving in time to the beat of the music that they could hear in the distance. They stayed that way for several minutes until Naina suddenly made an exclamation of pain and broke away from him.

"What is it?" Raj asked her, confused about whether he had accidentally done something.

"I stepped on a stone," she informed him, "I told you that my shoe had fallen off!" Laughing slightly he leaned down to help her with the shoe, as she placed one hand on his shoulder to balance.

"Better?" he asked, and she nodded. Winding one arm around Naina's waist, they walked a bit further until they found a bench where they could sit. He brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes, a look of contentment on his face. He would be happy just to sit and look at her all night if he could get away with it.

"Raj," Naina spoke softly, breaking the spell, "What's going to happen to us?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, wanting to clarify even though he already had an idea what it is that she was talking about.

"We've got less than a year left until I finish KMA. After that you'll be assigned somewhere else and I have no idea where I'll be. How often will we be able to see each other?" She sounded so worried that he leaned forward and kissed her lightly to reassure her, before taking both her hands in his.

"Naina, that's the way that an army life is." He informed her, "Once we're married then we'll be able to request a posting together, but until then we might be apart from each other for months at a time. It's not going to be enjoyable but we'll have to endure it, it's what all couples go through when one or both of them are in the army."

Naina nodded, she hadn't thought about this before falling in love with him, and it was too late now to change her mind. Both of them had selected this life, and they had to deal with the bad points as well as the good ones.

"Naina," Raj continued, "Don't worry too much. Even if I'm posted far away from you, we'll both get leave. We can visit each other then. We've already been through a lot together, we'll survive this too."

Naina nodded, and then rested her head on his shoulder, content to just sit that way, knowing that they might not get another opportunity to do so again for awhile. Raj placed his arm around her shoulders and leaned his head on top of hers. He sometimes forgot that Naina was not as used to life in the army as he was, that she would be worried about what the future would bring. To tell the truth, he wasn't keen on leaving her behind for months either, but he knew that it would only be temporary. They would have their whole lives ahead of them, and he hoped that one day they would be able to look back at the difficult times and laugh about them.

Naina noticed that Raj was shivering slightly and looked up.

"You're cold, aren't you?" she asked, "Why didn't you say anything?"

Raj laughed, "Because I knew that as soon as I did, you'd make us go back inside."

"Well you were right," Naina told him, "Let's go back in before you get a cold. The others must be wondering where we are, anyway."

"I bet they haven't even noticed we're gone."

He was right, by the time they arrived back, everybody was on the dance floor enjoying themselves.

"Well, shall we?" Raj asked, and Naina grinned, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the back of a chair. Making their way over to the rest of their friends, they began dancing to the fast music, enjoying themselves.

At 10:30pm it was time to go, although everybody was extremely reluctant to. Raj herded them all towards the jeep and everybody piled in, this time Aalekh stepped on Neelu's foot instead, but she didn't mind too much. After they had dropped Neelu at home, the rest of them headed back to the academy. However a nasty surprise awaited them at the entrance as they walked in still laughing and chatting; there stood Major Nair.

"Captain," he said, "Exactly what do you think you're doing, coming in at this time with these cadets,"

"Well Major Nair," Raj replied, perfectly calmly, "Firstly, I think you've forgotten that my proper title is Major. Secondly, I had taken these cadets out to celebrate my promotion as a thank you for their role in it. I feel they deserved it. Now if you think I've broken any rules, then I'll be waiting for you to inform me which ones they are." At the astonished look on Major Nair's face, Raj had to stop himself from grinning. "And as you can see, Dr Shalini was also with me to help supervise the cadets, and we can assure you that they behaved themselves properly. Now, I think it would be good if we all headed up to bed as we have a busy day tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Sir." Everybody replied, and quickly headed off towards their hostels before Major Nair could say anything else. Nair scowled at Raj, but realising that he couldn't actually accuse him of anything, stomped back to his room.

Raj and Shalini grinned at each other.

Raj realised that Huda had been right, the best bit about him being a Major really was that he didn't have to listen to Major Nair anymore.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

After the brief celebration for Raj's promotion, things returned to normal at the academy. Major Nair was just as tough on the cadets, BC was just as strict about disciplinary standards, Suriji and Lolita kept flirting and Raj and Shalini kept the cadets out of trouble. Meanwhile, Naina and her friends had been told to write an assignment on an aspect of the Indian Army's history, something which was met with by universal groans, except by Ali who was quite excited. Eventually after much complaining to Lolitaji, it was decided that they could write the assignment in pairs instead of on their own. In the end Ali and Pooja chose to work together, Huda with Yudi and Naina with Aalekh. At least that way, there was one strong partner in each pair.

Naina knew that Aalekh wasn't going to be much good at the actual writing part, so she got him to start researching in the library. As they sat there in the afternoon, scribbling down notes, Aalekh finally closed the book in disgust.

"Naina, I can't do this anymore." He told her, "My head is about to fall off from all this reading."

Naina laughed, "Alright we'll take a break then, we're quite far ahead as it is." Dropping her pen, she raised her hands above her head and stretched, yawning.

Aalekh looked around to see that nobody was within hearing distance and then turned to Naina and whispered "Do we really have to do all this? Couldn't we get Rajveer Sir to help us?"

"Aalekh!" Naina said, horrified. "You know that he's not going to give me any special favours just because, well, you know."

Aalekh rolled his eyes, "Just forget about your morals and go and ask, all that you need to do is smile at him and he'll agree."

Naina whacked Aalekh on the arm quite hard, leaving him rubbing the spot and glaring at her. "Shut up, Aalekh!" she told him, "We are not asking Raj… Rajveer Sir for help and that's final. You and I can do this assignment by ourselves."

Aalekh groaned, and opened up the book again, wishing that Naina didn't have quite so many principles.

Naina was just about to open her book too when an orderly came in. "Naina Singh, you have a call." He told her.

Smiling, Aalekh closed his book once again. "It's a sign," he told Naina, "We're not meant to work on this any more today."

"Fine," Naina replied, "We'll stop for today, but you'd better be ready to work hard tomorrow."

Gathering her notes, she left for the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" She said, picking up the receiver.

"Hello, Naina Beti," It was her mother on the other end of the line.

"Hi Ma, how are you? How's Baba?"

"We're fine, Naina, how are you?"

"Everything is going well here, Ma. What made you call?"

"Well we thought we should call as today we received a good proposal for you, Beti."

Naina froze, this was the last thing that she'd wanted to hear. "But Ma, I…"

"Just listen to the whole thing, Beti." Her mother told her, "The boy has a business but his father was in the army, so they have nothing against having a daughter in law who is a soldier. It's a very good proposal, you should think about it. The boy is good looking and well settled, you would have a good life."

"But Ma, I'm not ready to get married, you know that. My training at KMA isn't even over yet, and after that I want to focus on my career." Naina prayed that her mother would accept this as a good excuse.

"Naina, you've got less than five months left at KMA," her mother informed her, "And marriage won't stop your career. We can hold the engagement after you graduate."

"But Ma, I want to study more!" Naina told her, "I've decided that I want to become a doctor in the army so I'll be going onto medical training!" She had said the first thing that came into her head without even thinking about it.

"But Naina, this proposal…"

"Please, Ma, I don't want to think about any proposals until my medical training is complete, please accept what I'm asking and refuse the proposal."

"Well alright," her mother said reluctantly, "But if you change your mind then let us know soon."

"I won't, Ma." Naina informed her, "Say hi to Baba for me, I've got to go now."

Hanging up the phone she groaned, not able to believe that her mother had to start thinking about proposals for her at this time.

Naina grabbed her notes again and headed for Raj's office, knocking before she opened the door."

"Hey Naina," he said, looking up from what he was working on, "What's up?"

"I've decided to do medical training after graduation." She informed him, sinking down into one of the chairs.

"That's wonderful," Raj told her, sounding a bit surprised, "When did you decide that?"

"Just now, when my mother told me that they wanted to accept a proposal for me."

"Ah," Raj replied, "So you said it to avoid the proposal. But seriously, Naina, I think it's a good idea for you to do medical training, you've always been good at it."

"I said it as an excuse, but the more that I think about it, the more I think I wouldn't mind becoming a doctor."

They smiled at each other and Naina rubbed her forehead to try and get rid of her headache.

"You look tired." Raj commented.

"It's this history assignment I'm working on with Aalekh, it's really difficult."

"I know you'll be able to get it done, Naina, and that you'll do it well too."

Naina laughed, remembering Aalekh's words from earlier. "Aalekh's sick of working on it, he wanted me to ask you for help. He seems to think that I can get anything I want just by smiling at you."

"He's right," Raj said, grinning at her flirtatiously, "You could get anything you wanted simply by smiling at me. But the difference is that I know that you won't do that."

Naina smiled back at him, he knew her perfectly. Just as he knew that she could easily take advantage of him, he also knew that she never would.

"I hardly ever get the chance to see you anymore." She told him, her tone downcast, "I wish there was a way that we could get away from KMA for awhile and just spend some time together."

"Well your prayers just might be answered." Raj told her, with a smile on his face that clearly said he knew something that she didn't.

"And how is that?" Naina asked him, immediately curious to know what he was talking about.

"Wait and see," Raj told her, "You'll find out within the next few days."

Making a face at him to say that she was disappointed, Naina wandered over to Raj's chair and bent down to kiss him on the cheek. When he went to pull her closer, she moved away quickly.

"Then you'll find out what it's like to kiss me after a few days." She told him mischievously, and left the room.

Raj sighed, he just hoped that BC would make the announcement sooner rather than later.

/

The moment that Brigadier Chandook made the announcement, the entire academy couldn't stop talking about it. Some people thought that it was going to be better than last time, some people were afraid that it would turn out worse, but everybody was at least excited about it happening.

Everybody except Pooja that was.

"No way! No way am I making any type of connection again with that mucchad! I'll break my leg, but I'm never going on a mentorship camp with him again!"

Brigadier Chandook had announced that there was going to be another mentorship camp. There were only four months left for the senior cadets at KMA and Brigadier Chandook had decided that now was the perfect time to be holding a camp, before they all started studying for their final exams and the drills became more difficult.

Naina was excited, it would be the perfect excuse to spend some time alone with Raj before she graduated and they were separated. Ali and Huda were both fine with the idea, although Huda hoped that Dr Shalini didn't go sleep walking again, and Ali hoped that Suriji didn't get any more wrong ideas about him and Lolita Ma'am.

Aalekh and Yudi were both a bit confused about what they were supposed to do, considering that neither of their mentors were there any longer.

Nobody could console Pooja, who was now threatening to go on a hunger strike if anyone tried to make her go with Major Nair.

"At least you have a mentor," Yudi told her, "Mine is gone."

"Then take mine!" Pooja retorted, "You're welcome to him!"

"Ah, thanks but no thanks." Yudi replied hastily.

"Maybe they'll get you new mentors." Naina suggested to Yudi and Aalekh, in an attempt to make them feel better.

"I don't want any new mentor." Aalekh said, "The first one was a psychopath, the second one was a spy. What's the third one going to be?"

Naina agreed that he had a point.

All of the confusion was finally cleared in the afternoon when Brigadier Chandook called another assembly.

"It has come to my attention that some cadets will need to be reassigned mentors, and so I will now read out the new list of cadets and mentors."

For a moment Naina became worried, if Brigadier Chandook had decided to reassign mentor and protégé pairs then it was possible that he would reassign her to somebody else. Seeking out Raj's eyes from where he stood to the side of the podium she looked at him questioningly, but he inclined his head as if to tell her not to worry. Naina relaxed, Raj must know what was going on, if he wasn't worried then she wouldn't be either.

"And so I will now read out the new pairs, firstly, Cadet Singh and Major Rajveer." Naina breathed a sigh of relief, at least they were still together. "Secondly, Cadet Aalekh and Subedar Suri." Aalekh looked up to find Suriji beaming at him, Suriji was an improvement on his last two mentors. "Thirdly, Cadet Ghai and…" Pooja had closed her eyes, praying for a miracle. "Subedar Sen." "YES!" Pooja yelled, and then suddenly realised where she was, "Uh, sorry Sir!"

Giving her a stern look, Brigadier Chandook continued, "Cadet Baig and Major Nair." Ali wasn't happy about getting Major Nair as his mentor, but at least it meant that Pooja was safe from him. "And finally, as we only had one other available staff member, Dr Shalini has offered to mentor both Cadet Huda and Cadet Sahni."

Yudi was happy, if he could've chosen any of the teachers to be his mentor then it would've been Dr Shalini.

"What is this?" Huda complained, "Now I have to share my mentor just because Yudi's left? This isn't fair!"

"Shut up, bro." Yudi told him, "Just think about it, this way you'll only have to do half the work."

Huda admitted that Yudi definitely had a good point.

"So Cadets," Brigadier Chandook continued, "I know that our last mentorship camp had some unfortunate incidents."

"That's one way to phrase it…" Yudi muttered, "Aalekh nearly got blown up by a landmine, and Major Rajveer ended up in solitary confinement."

"But I'm sure that this time the camp will be completely incident free." Brigadier Chandook assured them. "You'll be leaving tomorrow morning at 1000 hours, if there are any questions then you may ask your mentors."

Most of the cadets approached their mentors excitedly, although Ali was much more serious as he approached Major Nair. Everybody could hear Yudi exclaiming to Shalini about how much fun it was going to be now that she was his mentor.

"So Cadet Singh, any questions?" Raj asked her, with a twinkle in his eye.

"No Sir, I trust you completely." She told him, grinning back.

Neither of them could wait for 10am the next morning.

/

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, with perfect conditions for the mentorship camp.

Pooja was in a much better mood now that she wasn't paired with Major Nair and she chattered away to Naina while they got ready.

"You know Naina, this camp is going to be much better than the last one. I've got a new connection now, but you're still on your old plan!" Pooja giggled, "And the funny thing is that everything you were suspected of doing last time, you can actually do this time!"

Naina blushed at this comment, not wanting to admit that she'd already had that thought. "Pooja, please! Raj… Major Rajveer and I aren't going to do anything we shouldn't be doing."

Pooja gave Naina a look that said she clearly didn't believe her, but dropped the topic anyway.

Finally there was only five minutes remaining until 10am and all of the cadets assembled in the meeting area. Major Nair was the first faculty member to arrive, followed by Suriji and Lolitaji. Finally, Shalini and Raj walked in, laughing about something. They stopped as soon as they saw Major Nair and stood to attention waiting for BC to begin speaking.

"Well cadets and faculty members, it's time for you to move towards the first point. Faculty members, call your cadets forward and leave one by one."

Major Nair and Ali were the first to leave, followed by Suriji and Aalekh and then Lolitaji and Pooja.

Shalini then stepped forward, "Cadets Huda and Sahni," she called, and then wondered why she had volunteered to take both of them when Huda pushed Yudi aside exclaiming, "She was my mentor first, so I go first!"

"Good luck," Raj whispered to Shalini and gave her a friendly wink.

"I'm going to need it." She muttered back to him as she walked towards her two cadets and then escorted them out.

"Well Cadet Singh, I guess that leaves us." Raj announced cheerfully, "Shall we go?"

"Of course, Sir." Naina replied calmly, knowing that Brigadier Chandook was still standing there watching them.

Quickly they headed out of KMA and towards the direction of where their equipment had been left. Everybody else had already arrived. Ali was carrying everything off, while Major Nair was carrying nothing. Pooja and Lolitaji were trying to work out how best to divide the equipment between them. Suriji stood there confused until Aalekh simply picked up most of the gear and starting walking off, leaving Suriji to hastily pick up what was left and follow him.

Meanwhile, Shalini was still having problems.

"Oy Yudi, you can carry everything. I'm doing you a favour by sharing my mentor with you, so you should do me one now."

"That is enough, Cadet Huda!" Shalini yelled, fed up of his rubbish, "I'm the one that's done you a favour by keeping you as my protégé. I remember what you were like during the last mentorship camp. Now shut up and pick up your share of the gear!" Shocked and slightly scared by this new side of Shalini, Huda quickly did as he was told.

Raj and Naina reached their pile, both trying not to laugh at what they had just witnessed. Examining the equipment, Raj quickly took the heaviest items, leaving Naina with a smaller share to carry.

"Sir, I'm not weak you know." Naina told him, slightly annoyed.

"I know you're not, Naina." Raj replied, trying not to grin at the expression on her face.

"Well then give me some more of the gear." She told him stubbornly.

"Naina, I know that you're not weak. You don't have to prove it by taking more gear." He told her, amused at her resistance.

"Sir," she said, stressing the word, "Despite, uh, well you know… that doesn't mean that I want any special treatment."

"I know," he told her, "And that's why I love you." Then sighing in resignation, he handed her a few of his items.

Naina grinned, happy at having won. They made their way to their camp site, and quickly began to set up the tent.

"You know, I can't believe that the first mentorship camp was over a year ago." Naina told Raj, as she held the pole that he was hammering into the ground. "So much has changed since then."

Raj nodded, they'd had their share of good and bad experiences since then. One thing was for sure, neither of them had known how that one camp would change their lives.

"Let's just hope that this one turns out better than the last one." Naina continued, a slightly worried look on her face as she remembered the events of the last one.

"Oh I don't know," Raj replied, "It wasn't all that bad."

"Not that bad? You were thrown into solitary confinement! Half of the academy believed those lies against us, and your career was almost ruined!" Naina looked at him in disbelief, not able to believe what he was saying.

Raj coughed self consciously, "They weren't all lies." He told her, hiding a small smile in the darkness.

"What do you mean?" Naina asked him, "We both know that nothing happened between us on the camp."

"Sure, nothing happened between us. But that doesn't mean that deep down inside I didn't want it to." He admitted, putting down the hammer and settling himself on the ground beside Naina.

"So you…"

"It was on that camp that I realised I was in love with you," Raj told her, reaching out a hand to brush a strand of hair that had come loose from her braid away from her face. "I was in denial, but deep down I knew it was true. It was in solitary confinement afterwards that I stopped lying to myself and admitted it."

Naina looked at him in surprise, she had never asked when he fell in love with her, and she hadn't known that he had been struggling with his feelings for so long, much before she had realised her own.

"So that's why you were so cold to me afterwards…" she murmured, finally understanding.

"It was hard for me," He told her, "But I knew that the truth behind the lies was dangerous, I couldn't allow you to even guess how I felt about you. At that stage you didn't even know about Navin. And I know that you hadn't started thinking about me in that way yet."

"I'm not so sure," Naina replied, "I remember feeling strange after I heard Dr Mishra telling you that she loved you, as if I was losing you. But at that stage I had no idea what my feelings really were."

They finished setting up the tent and put the rest of the gear inside of it.

"So that's really when you fell in love with me?" Naina asked him, wanting to hear more.

"Well, I think that it had been happening gradually for awhile before then. It was after Bhargav exposed you that I started becoming especially protective of you. I was in such denial about it, that before the camp I didn't even allow myself to think about it."

"Why not?" Naina asked him softly, even though she thought she already knew the answer.

"Because it was wrong…. It still is wrong." Raj replied, feeling frustrated. "I know that what I'm doing is against army conduct and the academy's rules but I just can't help myself."

Naina bit her lip, she knew that he felt guilty about their relationship but there was nothing she could do about it. The truth was that she felt guilty too, not just about lying to the academy but also about lying to her parents, about being in love with a man they hated.

"I know that it's against the rules…" she replied slowly, thinking about her words, "But we're not hurting anyone, and I know that you'll never give me any unfair advantage because of our relationship. As long as we don't cross any boundaries, there's no real harm."

Raj smiled at her, "Don't ever think that I regret this, Naina. I can never regret being able to be with you, it's something that I never could have dreamed would happen." He reached out and placed his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned her head against him. "So I've told you enough today, why don't you tell me when you fell in love with me?" he asked, smiling down at her.

"Well, to be honest I'm not sure when it began. I always had a strange feeling whenever I saw you, one that I couldn't name"

"So then when did you realise it?" he asked, hugging her even tighter to him against the cold night air.

"After you told my parents the truth." She admitted, "It was the first time I realised that I might lose you, and that thought affected me. So then I talked to Aalekh and he helped me figure it out."

"So I should be thanking Aalekh then?" Raj asked, realising that he had quite a lot to thank Aalekh for. If there was anybody that he would trust to look after Naina and be a true friend to her, then it would Aalekh.

Naina laughed, "I think Aalekh would find that quite funny."

Raj laughed too, and then he stood up, and offered Naina a hand to help her up too. Naina grabbed his hand and he pulled her up so quickly that they collided, her knocking her head on his chest.

"I think we'd better finish putting up this tent then go and join the rest for dinner," Raj told her, "Otherwise we really will be starting some more rumours."

They finished off the rest of the work quickly, and walked towards the main meeting area where everybody would be eating dinner together. Despite her excitement at finally being alone with Raj, she was also slightly nervous as well. Last mentorship camp they hadn't actually slept inside the tent together, and in the time since they'd admitted their feelings, opportunities to be alone had been few and far between. She trusted Raj, but she was still anxious about tonight. What if they got carried away by their feelings… what if they…

Calming herself down as they approached the camp fire, Naina convinced herself that everything would be fine. Still, she couldn't stop her heart from beating faster at the thought that one hour from now they would be heading back to their tent alone, the whole night ahead of them.

Naina was suddenly not sure if she would be able to eat anything. Seeing her friends sitting together, she moved to join them as Raj went to join the rest of the faculty.

Taking a deep breath, Naina sat down.

On the other side of the fire, Raj settled himself next to Shalini, glancing across at Naina. Warmth spread through him just by looking at her, being with her. He couldn't feel the chill of the night air at all.

It was official.

Raj loved mentorship camps.

/

Naina sat down between Aalekh and Pooja, disrupting the friendly argument that had been going on between them.

"You tell him, Naina." Pooja said stubbornly. "He can't drink while we're on mentorship camp."

"Tu bhi na, Aalekh." Naina told him, "It won't hurt you if you don't drink for a day."

"Leave it, Naina." Aalekh said. "I've already heard enough from Pooja."

Smiling, Naina stretched out her legs in front of her. "So how's it going so far, guys?" she asked them, wanting to know how everybody else's camp had been so far.

"I'm not sure who's the mentor, Suriji or me." Aalekh remarked, "He's constantly confused about what we should be doing. But still, he's better than the last two."

"I think," Yudi told Naina in a whisper, "That Dr Shalini is going to end up killing Huda before the evening is over. Does anybody want to lay any bets?"

They all laughed at this, as Huda walked over with everybody's share of the food, giving it to the teachers and then coming over to the students.

"What did I miss?" Huda asked, "What's so funny?" 

"Nothing Hudabhai," Ali told him with a smile, "We were just talking about how the camp is going." 

"Don't even ask," Huda said, shaking his head, "Why couldn't I have changed mentors? That Dr Shalini may look harmless, but when she looks at me, I suddenly get this strange fear. I swear that if she goes sleep walking tonight it's your responsibility Yudi, I'm staying out of it."

Everybody just laughed even harder, leaving Huda more confused.

"My connection with Lolitaji is going much better than it was with that mucchad." Pooja told them, "She's strict but she's got a good heart. I just feel bad for Ali that he got my cross connection."

Ali shrugged, "It's only for another day. Major Nair isn't that bad to me, and at least it will make me tougher."

"So what about you, Naina? How's your mentorship camp going?" Yudi asked with a grin, wanting to see if Naina would get embarrassed.

"Oh you know, it's going well." She replied casually, "Of course we haven't really done much yet except put up the tent and gather some firewood. We'll see how everything turns out tomorrow."

Seeing everybody staring at her in disbelief, Naina stared right back. "What?" she asked them, "What were you expecting me to say?"

Looking across the campfire at the cadets, Raj leaned over to speak to Shalini. "What do you think they're talking about?"

"Why? Are you afraid that they're talking about you?"

Raj glanced towards Major Nair, and saw him engrossed in a conversation with Suriji and Lolitaji. He was far enough away to not be able to hear them anyway.

"No, of course not, it's just that…"

"That you can't wait to leave here and get back to your tent, right?"

Raj stared at Shalini, open mouthed. He couldn't believe that she was talking like this.

"Not at all!" he said defensively, "I was just…"

"Look, Raj." Shalini told him in a very no nonsense way, "Do you still remember the advice that I gave you all those months ago?"

"No hugging Suriji?"

"No!" Shalini hissed at him, "Don't do anything that you can be court-martialled for!"

"I can assure you Shalini, that I have no intention of doing any such thing." Raj told her, slightly offended.

"Look Captain, I know that your intentions are very good, but let's face it, this is the first time that you and Naina will be, uh, spending the night together. So just make sure that you don't actually spend the night together!"

Realising what she meant, Raj turned bright red. "Shalini, you know sometimes I think your one mission in life is to embarrass me terribly."

"That could be true." Shalini admitted with a grin.

"And besides, this isn't the first time that Naina and I have spent the night together."

Seeing Shalini's raised eyebrows at this comment, Raj hastily added, "That wasn't what I meant! I mean, there was the last mentorship camp, and then that time that she fell asleep in my room."

"That was different Raj, you weren't in a relationship at that point. Just don't do anything that you'll regret later."

"I promise you Shalini, that I won't do anything like that." Raj told her solemnly, "Now could you please make me a promise that we're never going to discuss anything like this EVER again?"

Shalini just laughed, "Alright, I know you're a grown up. I trust you, and I won't bring it up again."

"Thank god…" Raj muttered. "And besides, should I be giving you advice too? After all, you'll have your hands full with those two."

Shalini sighed, and looked across the camp fire to where Yudi and Huda were arguing about something else.

"Just wish me luck." She told him.

Raj glanced across the campfire to see Aalekh watching him intently.

Finally it was time to go to sleep. Ali and Major Nair were the first to leave, followed shortly afterwards by Lolitaji and Pooja.

As Suriji and Aalekh left, Aalekh quickly shot Raj a glance that clearly said he'd better not do anything tonight that he shouldn't be doing. Raj sighed, it seemed like everybody here was suspecting his intentions.

When they were far enough away from everybody else, Raj allowed his hand to brush against Naina's, then quickly entangled his fingers with hers. It was too dark to see her face, but he swore that he could feel her smiling.

/

Both Ali and Pooja and their respective mentors went to sleep quickly, since there was nothing to distract them. However in the other tents it was a different story.

In Aalekh and Suriji's tent they were having an argument about Aalekh drinking.

"You know I can't go to sleep unless I drink." Aalekh told him.

"Well you'll have to learn to then." Suriji replied in a strict tone, "It's not good for young men like you to be drinking all the time."

"Suriji, just a few sips won't hurt me!"

"Just hand that flask over now, it's an order!" Reluctantly Aalekh did so, knowing that he couldn't refuse his mentor.

Suriji went to pour it out and then thought better of it, "It's a pity to waste good rum." He remarked, and opening the flask, drank all of it without taking a single breath.

Aalekh stared at him in disbelief, "Suriji? What have you done?"

"I'm just saving you from this alcohol, putar!" Suriji announced, "It's my duty to stop you from drinking, even if it means that I have to do so myself!" Then Suriji lay down on his sleeping bag and very quickly went to sleep.

Aalekh glared at Suriji as his mentor began to snore. It looked like he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

/

After some initial quarrelling about who would sleep where, and who would get which blanket, Shalini and her two cadets finally lay down to get some sleep in a row with some space between them. Yudi next to Shalini and Huda next to Yudi. Shalini and Yudi went to sleep almost immediately, but Huda stayed awake, worried. He didn't want Shalini to go off sleepwalking again and get herself into trouble like she had last time. The worry was going to disturb his sleep. Finally Huda came up with the perfect solution, grinning to himself, he began to set up his plan.

Later that night, Yudi woke up needing to go to the bathroom. Standing up, he tried to quietly sneak out of the tent, not wanting to wake Dr Shalini or Huda up. He had only taken a couple of steps when…

"ARGH!"

"ARGH!"

"Argh?"

"What the hell is going on, Cadet?"

Waking up to the surprised yells of Dr Shalini and Yudi, Huda quickly turned on the lantern that was on the ground beside him. Looking over in their direction he grimaced, Yudi was sprawled over Dr Shalini's legs, still trying to pick himself up.

However when he stood up again, the rope attached to his leg just jerked him back down and he only narrowly avoided landing on top of her.

"What the hell is going on, Cadet?" Shalini asked angrily, she'd been woken when something had tugged on her leg, then Yudi had fallen on her when she had jerked her leg back hastily.

"I swear I have no idea, ma'am!" Yudi told her, "I was just going outside and…" he looked down at the rope tied around his ankle and began to untie it. "I swear I didn't do this!"

"Well if you didn't, who did?"

The answer was suddenly obvious, and both of them turned to glare in Huda's direction.

"Cadet Huda," Shalini says in a very dangerous tone of voice, "Would you like to explain this?"

"I swear ma'am, I was only doing it for your own good! Last time you almost killed yourself while sleep walking when we were on camp. How was I to know that Yudi would get up in the middle of the night?" He turned to Yudi accusingly. "This is all your fault. Why did you have to get up?"

"Bro, nature called so I went to answer it." Yudi said, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Why did you tie Dr Shalini to me if you were so worried, you could have tied her to yourself?"

"Excuse me, cadets! But I don't want to be tied to anyone thank you very much! Cadet Huda, thank you for your concern, and if you're so worried then go and sleep next to the tent's entrance, that way you can stop me if I go sleepwalking."

Angrily, Shalini untied the rope from her ankle. "You heard me, go!"

Taking his sleeping bag and blanket, Huda got up and moved to the entrance of the tent, grumbling. She should've been thankful to him for thinking about her safety. "Next time," Huda muttered, "I'll never try to help anybody."

/

Naina had been inside the tent setting up the sleeping bags and blankets. She had thought that Raj would come in at any moment, but he was still sitting by the fire outside.

Naina stepped outside the tent and came to sit beside him. "Aren't you going to come inside?" she asked him, "It's quite late."

"I don't know if I should." Raj replied.

"Why not?" Naina asked him.

"Because everybody seems to suspect that something will end up happening between us, and honestly, I'm not sure that I don't want it to."

Naina blushed under the intensity of his gaze, heat rising through her body. "What do you mean everybody suspects you?" she asked, not wanting to comment on the second part of his statement.

"Well by everybody, I really mean Dr Shalini and Aalekh. Shalini gave me a warning at dinner time, and you should've seen the look that Aalekh gave me before he left."

Naina started laughing, "You're scared of Aalekh?"

"Well, not scared exactly, but I know he's very protective of you."

"And you don't trust yourself?" Naina asked Raj, half amused and half nervous.

"Why do you think that I left the tent last time we went on camp?" he asked her, and Naina began to laugh.

"Naina, this isn't funny!" Raj told her, even though he was fighting not to laugh himself. The situation really was ridiculous now that he thought about it. This was the real reason why teachers should never date their students, because it led to situations like this.

"Look, Raj," Naina began, taking her hand in his, "Are you honestly worried that we might… well that…" she couldn't quite bring herself to say it, quite embarrassed about having to have this conversation.

"Well I wasn't until everybody started warning me not to do anything." Raj admitted, "And then I started wondering whether they were right and there really was a danger that I'd get carried away."

"No matter what anybody else thinks, I trust you." Naina promised him, "And that's what matters. Now come inside."

Raj allowed her to lead him inside, and they settled down on top of their sleeping bags. Raj noticed that Naina had laid them right next to each other with no space in between. He couldn't believe how deeply she trusted him.

Looking at Naina in the low lamplight, Raj softened, forgetting some of his earlier annoyance and nervousness.

Naina took the band out of her braid and begins to loosen her hair, preparing herself for sleep. Raj was struck once again by how beautiful she was, he felt a strong urge to protect her from any harm, to make sure that she was never hurt.

"I can't believe they would think that about me," he murmured, "I mean, no matter how much I want you… I know what's right and wrong. I would never want it to happen like that, not on a camp, in this type of place."

Her hair now hanging loosely around her shoulders, Naina smiled at him. "To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about tonight. I trust you completely, it's me that I was worried about."

Raj took off his boots and lay down on his mat, gesturing to Naina to do the same. They lay facing each other only a short distance apart, and he lifted a hand to trace it down her cheek, then stroked her hair as Naina relaxed and her eyelids begin to droop. Raj grabbed the blanket and covered both of them with it, before turning back to Naina who was now smiling at him sleepily.

Leaning across he kissed her lightly on the lips, then placed his arm over her waist, bringing her closer so that she was now firmly within his embrace. He placed his other arm under her neck, to hold her around the shoulders. Naina snuggled closer to him, feeling warm and safe in his embrace, throwing one of her arms around his waist to hug him, bending the other one to rest lightly on the arm under her neck.

"I love you." She whispered to him sleepily, her breathing becoming deeper and more even.

"I love you too." Raj replied, "Much more than you know." He felt himself beginning to fall sleep and did not resist.

"Sweet dreams." He told Naina, and heard her mumble "You too…" back to him.

With her in his arms, what else could they be?


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Raj woke early due to habit, blinking his eyes against the sunlight filtering in through the tent's opening. Smiling, he looked down at the girl asleep in his arms. During the night they had shifted position so that Raj lay on his back, still with his arm around her shoulder. Naina's head rested on Raj's chest, her arm flung across his stomach.

Unable to resist, Raj lifted his other hand to stroke her hair, and Naina mumbled, trying to move herself even closer to Raj and shutting her eyes tightly against the sun.

Raj tried to work out what the emotion was that he was feeling at that moment. He realised that it was, quite simply… contentment.

Eventually after five minutes of resisting the impulse, Naina opened her eyes. "Good morning," she told him sleepily, dropping her head back down again to bury it in his neck, hugging him tightly.

"It certainly is." Raj remarked, "If only I could wake up like this every morning."

"Of course you can wake up like this every morning, just tell me and I'll start sleeping in your room," Naina joked, "Then you can explain to Major Nair exactly what I'm doing there."

"Oh god Naina, I was having such a nice morning, and you had to mention him."

Naina laughed, and resisted Raj's attempts to get up, not moving from her position on top of his chest.

"Don't get up just yet," she told him, "We don't have to be at breakfast for another hour."

She crossed her arms on top his chest and leaned on them, looking him in the eye. "So, you managed to resist me for an entire night." She teased him.

"Well it was difficult, but I managed to stop myself." Raj joked back.

Suddenly he saw a mischievous look come on Naina's face, and knew that she was planning something.

"What?" Raj asked, slightly nervous due to the look in her eyes, "I know you're planning something."

"Well," Naina told him, "Wouldn't it be fun if we let them think that something actually had happened, you know, just to see their reactions…"

Raj stared at her as if she was crazy. "You're joking, right? I have no desire to get killed by Dr Shalini while I eat my breakfast."

"Well when you put it that way, I suppose it isn't that great an idea." Naina said, ruffling his hair with one hand, "But you have to admit that it would be good to see the looks on their faces."

Still moving her fingers through his hair, Naina rested her other hand lightly on his chest.

Raj was incredibly aware of her closeness, of the softness of her body on top of his. The mischief in her eyes and the smile playing on her lips were too great a temptation for him. Quickly he flipped Naina onto her back, rolling on top of her.

Naina stifled a giggle, not at all nervous.

"What's so funny?" Raj asked, "That wasn't really the reaction I was hoping for." Naina was tempted to ask him exactly what the reaction he wanted was.

Gazing up at him, Naina blushed at the intensity of the look in his eyes. His body was hard and lean against hers, and she could feel the strength in him. She trusted him so much that it hadn't occurred to her until now how difficult for him it might actually be not to try to take things further. He was a man after all, not a saint.

"Are you going to get off me?" Naina whispered, not really wanting him to.

"No." Raj replied, and leaned down to kiss her, bringing a hand up to tangle it in her hair while he did so. He kissed her with enough pressure that her lips parted, allowing him even greater freedom. As the kiss became even more heated, Raj moved his hand down to Naina's hip, slipping it underneath her t-shirt to rest on her skin.

Suddenly he stopped, and lifting himself up slightly, he looked down at Naina.

"What?" she asked, confused by why he was looking at her that way, and wishing that he hadn't stopped kissing her.

"Naina, now is the point when you're supposed to tell me to stop."

"Oh, right." Naina blinked at him, her mind only half working through a cloud of desire. "Well then, stop."

"Excellent work." Raj told Naina, and lifted himself off her, sitting up.

"Sorry," she said a bit sheepishly, "I didn't realise it was my job to tell these things."

Raj grinned and leaned forward to kiss her again.

"Okay stop!" Naina told him, "And I mean it, otherwise we really are going to be late for breakfast. I haven't even done my hair yet."

Getting a comb out of her pack, she begins to separate the strands, ready to begin braiding.

"Can I do it for you?" Raj suddenly asked.

Naina stared at him, "Raj, do you really think that you know how to braid a girl's hair? And if you do, then my next question is whose hair have you been braiding? Should I be jealous?" She asked jokingly.

"Well, I admit that I don't have any experience, but it can't be that hard." He told her, "I was the best in my class at tying those rope knots of Major Nair's, it can't be more difficult than that."

Naina was a bit unsure about placing her hair in Raj's hands, especially after this justification from him, but she allowed him to braid it anyway. Facing away from him, she could feel his hands deftly move through her hair, braiding it lovingly. Naina couldn't help but smile, knowing that he was doing it wrong, but not minding at all. When he was finished, he tilted her head back with his hands and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Well, shall we go?" Raj asked and they set off in the direction of where the campfire had been the previous night. They walked silently, glancing at each other with small smiles every few seconds.

They arrived to see that everybody was already there, except for Major Nair and Ali who had gone jogging.

Raj and Naina walked over to the kettle that hung over the fire and Raj crouched down beside her while Naina poured them both tea and handed his to him. The look he gave her warmed her far more than any tea possibly could. Grabbing their breakfasts they headed to their different sides of the fire.

As soon as Raj sat down, Shalini turned to him. "So Major, how was your night?" she asked, obviously wanting to check up on him.

Remembering Naina's words from earlier, Raj fixed a slightly guilty look on his face and avoided meeting Shalini's eyes, "Uh, it was good, Doctor." He replied, trying to make his voice sound as embarrassed as possible.

Shalini just stared at him wide eyed, her mouth hanging open as if she was a fish. "Major, you didn't…" she whispered, her tone absolutely shocked, turning around she quickly made sure that Suriji and Lolitaji weren't listening, "After all the warnings I gave you?"

Raj's face suddenly broke into a grin, Naina was right, it had been worth it to see the expression on her face. "Relax Shalini, I was only kidding you!" Seeing that Shalini still seemed slightly suspicious, he reassured her more, "I swear that nothing happened! Now tell me how your night was?"

Relaxing now that she knew for sure he had been joking, Shalini sighed. "Do not even ask, I don't think I'm volunteering for a mentorship camp ever again."

"That bad?"

"Worse." And Shalini narrated the entire story to Raj.

He was in stitches by the time she finished, unable to control his laughter.

"No wait, the story's not finished yet." Shalini told him, finally beginning to see the funny side of things herself. "Wait until you hear what happened this morning…"

/

Earlier that morning…

"ARGH!"

"ARGHHH!"

"Cadets, what the hell is going on?"

As instructed by Shalini the night before, Huda had gone to sleep lying across the entrance to the tent. When Yudi decided he needed to go out to use the bathroom, he thought it was a better idea to simply step over Huda rather than waking him up.

Yudi had just lifted one leg to step over his friend when Huda suddenly woke up. Still half asleep, and panicking at somebody standing above him, Huda had yelled, and tried to sit up. Unfortunately, Yudi's leg was still half way over Huda and the movement had unbalanced him, making him fall backwards and also yell.

This was when Shalini had woken up.

By the time she finishes, Raj was laughing even harder, holding his sides since they were hurting so much.

"I'm definitely never coming on mentorship camp again." Shalini told him, "And if I do, then I want a female cadet."

/

On the other side of the fire, Pooja was unsuccessfully trying to get some gossip out of Naina.

"Come on doost, tell me what type of sms's you sent each other last night?"

"There was nothing like that, Pooja. Honestly, we just went straight to sleep." Naina replied, blushing slightly. She definitely wasn't going to mention what had happened in the morning.

"What a shame," Pooja told her, "You finally got some uninterrupted talk time and the call was wasted! And me? Even at breakfast, that Mucchad has sent Ali on roaming!"

"The talktime wasn't wasted, Pooja." Naina told her, "It was nice to spend some time alone no matter what the circumstances were." Honestly, she became happier just being in the same room as Raj.

At that moment, Ali and Major Nair arrived back, Ali waiting to collapse until after he'd made the Major some tea, wanting to prove he could be a good protégé.

That done, he came and sat down next to Pooja, leaning against her shoulder. Ali was only slightly less shy now that his and Pooja's parents had accepted their relationship, he still wasn't likely to express much affection in public.

Pooja gave him a sympathetic look, she knew exactly how difficult it was to have Major Nair as a mentor.

"So guys, what are we actually doing today?" Naina asked, she'd been too distracted to find out from Raj.

"Major Nair said that we'll be going canoeing," Ali replied, "Apparently it will be a competition between cadet and mentor teams."

"That's not fair!" Pooja exclaimed, "Yudi and Huda's team has a double battery!"

"More like double the problems," Aalekh commented quietly enough that the two boys couldn't hear.

They began to eat their breakfasts then, still talking and laughing as they heard stories about what had happened in Aalekh's and Yudi and Huda's tents the night before.

Suddenly Pooja realised that there was something different about Naina today. "Naina, what did you do to your hair today?" she asked her.

"Why? You don't like it?" Naina hid her smile and touched the end of the braid. "I thought a change would be good."

"No, it's not that." Pooja replied quickly, not wanting to offend her friend, "It just reminds me of one of Major Nair's rope knots."

Naina really tried hard not to laugh, but her eyes met Raj's and there was nothing she could do to control herself then.

Shaking his head at her behaviour, Major Nair had a look on his face that clearly said 'This is why women shouldn't be allowed into the army.'

The rest of Naina's friends didn't have a clue why she had suddenly started laughing, but Pooja had suddenly understood.

"You must really love him if you'll keep a braid that bad in your hair." Pooja whispered to Naina, once the others had turned back to their breakfasts. 

"I really do." Naina admitted to her friend.

She was completely and utterly in love with him.

Naina started to eat her breakfast, trying not to glance across at Raj. She didn't need to look to know that he was watching her.

/

After breakfast the cadets and their mentors climbed into two jeeps and drove to a nearby dam where Brigadier Chandook was waiting to instruct them in what they would be doing.

"So cadets, this morning you will be canoeing in teams with your mentors. You will have to use both speed and agility in this exercise. I realise that Dr Shalini's team has an unfair advantage, so only one of her proteges will be allowed to paddle. It's your call, Doctor."

Looking at her two cadets, Shalini couldn't decide. Huda obviously had more strength in his arms, but he was too over confident and she also didn't want to hurt Yudi's feelings either.

The dilemma is solved for her when Yudi leans over and tells her quietly, "Choose Huda, ma'am, he'll be able to paddle faster than me."

Shalini nodded. "Cadet Huda will be paddling and Cadet Yudi will direct us." She announced.

Pooja groaned, there was no way that she and Lolitaji would ever be able to win now.

"Alright, now I'll hand you over to your instructor who will teach you what you should be doing." Brigadier Chandook told them, and stepped back.

They all put their life jackets on and grabbed their paddles, watching the instructor show them how they should move in order to turn the canoe in certain directions.

Finally when he was satisfied that they knew what they were doing, the instructor told them to go to their canoes.

In front of them was the dam, and as Brigadier Chandook explained, they would have to paddle hard for the first stretch then make their way around a series of buoys and obstacles, then paddle hard for the final stretch until they reached the finish line and grabbed their flags.

"Are you ready to win, Cadet Singh?" Raj asked her, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Always, Sir!" Naina responded confidently, knowing that when she and Raj were on the same side, they always made a great team.

"Alright, get into your canoes and be ready to go on my whistle!" Brigadier Chandook announced.

Raj held the canoe steady while Naina stepped in, and then carefully got in himself. All of the other pairs and the trio were also trying to get in without upsetting their canoes. Lolitaji and Pooja, and Major Nair and Ali were soon seated. Yudi and Huda were bickering about who should get in first until Shalini solved the argument by declaring that Huda should get in first since he was the heaviest and would be able to balance the canoe while they got in.

**SPLASH**

Everyone turned in the direction of the sound to see Aalekh still standing on the shore. He just shrugged as if to say it wasn't his fault and they looked down to see Suriji sitting in the shallow water, having unbalanced the canoe when he tried to get in.

"Aalekh, putar, just hold the canoe and I'll get in." Suriji told him, slightly embarrassed. This time Aalekh grabbed it firmly, not wanting the race to be over before it had even begun for his team.

As soon as Brigadier Chandook blew the whistle, everybody started paddling as fast as they could. They were all making good speed, although Aalekh and Suriji's canoe lagged slightly behind as Suriji was not very fit and had already run out of breath.

Ali and Major Nair were going well when Major Nair spotted Lolitaji and Pooja gaining on them. "Quick Cadet Baig, we'll cut them off and force their canoe to capsize!" He ordered Ali, wanting to eliminate the competition.

"But Sir, I…"

"Just do it, Cadet Baig!" Major Nair yelled and began paddling furiously towards the other canoe.

Ali was conflicted, on the one hand he couldn't refuse his mentor and on the other, he couldn't purposefully tip over his girlfriend's canoe. The two canoes were just about to crash when Ali began to paddle in the other direction. The sudden change of movement was too much for the small canoe and it tipped over, both Ali and Major Nair landing in the water.

"Cadet Baig!"

"I'm sorry, Sir!"

"Just get back in the damn boat!"

Meanwhile Raj and Naina were paddling at a decent pace, knowing that there was a long way to go and they should save their energy. They were currently in second place behind Shalini's canoe.

Shalini and her team had been doing excellently, mostly due to Huda's strength. However it was when they reached the obstacles that the trouble started. Yudi was meant to be directing them, and when they reached the first buoy, Yudi called out "Paddle left!"

Shlaini obeyed, but Huda decided that he had a better idea, "No, right!" he yelled, "Go right!" Shalini had already started paddling to the left, while Huda went right and all they succeeded in doing was turning the boat in the opposite direction.

"Cadet Huda!" she yelled at him.

"Sorry ma'am!" Huda told her sheepishly, "But we should've paddled right!"

"I know exactly what I should do with this paddle!" Shalini told him, and whacked it hard down on the water, sending up a splash of water than drenched Huda.

"Ma'am, what are you doing?" Huda yelled and turned around to face her, getting up slightly, but his weight tipped the boat over and they all landed in the water.

"Cadet Huda!" Shalini's yell could be heard right to the end of the dam.

Surprisingly, Lolitaji and Pooja were now in the front; although Major Nair thought of Pooja as weak, her arms were strong from years of playing hockey. The two of them had managed to make their way gracefully through the obstacles and were now beginning the final stretch. Raj and Naina weren't far behind and were catching up fast. Slightly behind them, Major Nair and Ali were paddling hard, and had almost caught up to Raj and Naina's boat.

"Don't fail me this time, Cadet Baig, or you'll regret it!" Major Nair threatened, and began to turn the canoe towards Raj and Naina's, intending to jam it. Ali wasn't happy, but he couldn't disobey Major Nair a second time, so he paddled in the same direction, shutting his eyes just before impact.

**CRASH**

The two boats collided, and Raj and Naina's tipped over, throwing them into the water.

"I'm sorry!" Ali called out, as he and Major Nair paddled away.

"That bloody cheat!" Raj yelled, and then turned around to see that Naina was laughing, unable to stay angry for long he quickly saw the funny side of it and started to laugh too.

"Alright, Cadet Singh, we'd better get back in this canoe." He announced, and watched as Naina unsuccessfully tried to climb up. Moving closer, he gave her a hand, supporting her by holding her waist and then giving her an extra push to help her get in.

Seeing that Naina was safely in the canoe, Raj quickly lifted himself over the edge and hopped inside. However he misjudged the distance, and end up landing on top of Naina.

"I'm sorry, Naina!" he told her, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she told him, "But you're squashing me, and if we don't start paddling again we're going to come last!"

Raj grinned, he loved it when Naina became competitive.

Picking up their paddles again, they quickly made their way to the finish line and grabbed their flag. They had lost their chances of winning but had ended up coming third. Pooja and Lolitaji had managed to come first, and Pooja was absolutely ecstatic. Major Nair had an especially sour look on his face, and Ali was trying not to grin. Suriji and Aalekh came fourth, and after a great deal of trouble, Shalini and her cadets finally made it to the end.

Stepping out of the canoe and onto the shore, Shalini announced, "I am never…" 

"Coming on mentorship camp again." Raj finished for her.

Shalini just nodded, glad that he understood.

"That's a pity," Raj told her, "I love mentorship camps, I wish we had more of them." And he grinned at Naina with such an affectionate look on his face, that everybody couldn't help but notice. Everybody except Major Nair that is, who had already stomped away, too upset about the fact that he had been beaten by two women.

Soon after this they climbed back into the jeeps, on their way back to KMA. Major Nair drove one jeep with Brigadier Chandook, Suriji, Lolitaji and Shalini in it.

Raj drove the other one, taking all of the cadets back with him. Naina sat in the front seat beside him, while everybody else was in the back. Halfway through the journey, Pooja fell asleep on Ali's shoulder, exhausted after all of the effort she had made to win.

Raj met Naina's eyes in the rearview mirror, and smiled at her. It might have only been a little more than a day, but they had some good memories to keep them going over the coming weeks.

He knew that from now on, Naina would have even less time to meet him as she would have to study hard from now until the final exams.

It didn't matter to him, all that mattered was that she was here, and she was happy. He would do anything to ensure it.

The day wasn't far off when she would graduate, and after that he didn't know how long it would be before he was able to see her again.

For now, Raj would take whatever he could get.

He wasn't going to waste time worrying about tomorrow until it came.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

The weeks passed quickly as the cadets became busier and busier. Raj tried to help them with their studies and training whenever possible, remembering how difficult his own academy days had been.

Finally only a few weeks remained until graduation and the final rounds of tests and drills had begun. The cadets were to complete all of their practical drills first and afterwards would sit for their written exams.

So far all of the six cadets had done excellently. They had completed their drills on hand to hand combat, target practice, and mock search and destroy and rescue drills. Now all that remained was Major Nair's speed and agility drill, which would require them to complete an obstacle course in the shortest amount of time possible.

Raj had promised to be there to watch the final drill to ensure that Major Nair didn't mark any of the students unjustly, especially the girls. He was determined that Naina should become best cadet at the end of the year and he didn't want her to miss out just because one of her professors hated girls. Huda had already started accepting bets for who the best cadet would be, and Naina was one of the favourites among the candidates.

The drill started off well enough, Ali, Pooja and Yudi all completed the drill in good time, Yudi only falling once. Eventually it was Naina's turn and she approached the start line, feeling confident about her performance. She knew that Raj was watching her and it gave her extra encouragement to do well.

As soon as Major Nair blew his whistle, Naina started running, when she reached the first obstacle she dropped down and crawled through the mud, ensuring that she didn't touch the barbed wire above her. The next obstacle involved climbing up a wall with the help of hand holds, and then abseiling down the other side with a rope. Naina also passed this successfully, only losing her grip on the wall for one moment.

It was only when she was about to complete the last obstacle that something went wrong. It was quite a high beam that she had to cross and Naina had successfully gotten across it and was about to jump down when the sound of a gun shot rung out. She had forgotten that the first year cadets had their rifle drill today, and the sound startled Naina. She had already begun getting ready to jump and she lost her balance, landing the wrong way on her left ankle. Naina collapsed to the ground in pain clutching it, knowing that at the very least she had sprained it.

Raj's first instinct was to run and help her, but he managed to stop himself. He knew that interfering in the drill would just ruin Naina's chances of receiving favourable points. Clenching his fists, he stood still, waiting to see how it would turn out.

"Oh what a shame, Cadet Singh," Major Nair said mockingly, approaching her, "It looks like you won't be able to complete the drill now, and your dreams of becoming the best cadet will be ruined."

Hearing Major Nair's taunt, Naina steeled herself against the pain. She wasn't going to let him win, no matter what happened or how much it hurt, she would complete this drill. Slowly getting up, she managed to stand, putting most of the pressure on her right foot instead.

Going as fast as she could despite the stabbing pain in her left ankle and foot, Naina managed to limp to the finish line, throwing a victorious look in Major Nair's direction once she reached it. She knew she had no chances of winning this drill, but at least she had managed to complete it.

Naina could see the worried faces of her friends, but nodded in their direction to show that she was okay.

"Alright, go and stand with the rest of your batchmates, Cadet Singh." Major Nair told her. "Cadet Huda, you're next!"

Coming over quickly, Raj interrupted him. "Major Nair I disagree, I think that Cadet Singh should go to the infirmary right away. We don't know how serious her injury is."

"Oh what a surprise, Major Shekhawat." Major Nair told him sarcastically, "Once again you've come to interfere on behalf of your Cadet Singh."

"Major, you know that we have a duty of care to the cadets." Raj responded calmly, refusing to get angry at the way Major Nair was speaking. "Cadet Singh still has the rest of her exams to complete, and it's important that she be in good health to do so."

"Fine, Major." Nair told him, sounding fed up. "Take your cadet and go, and stop disrupting my drill."

"Thank you, Major Nair. I will take my cadet." Raj told him, and quickly crossed over to Naina.

"Cadet Singh, lean on me." He told her, placing Naina's left arm over his shoulder and supporting her around the waist with his right arm. Raj waited until they were out of eyesight of Major Nair before he stopped. He couldn't stand seeing Naina in so much pain, as she winced with every step she took.

"Naina, put your arms around my neck, and I'll carry you." He told her.

"Raj, do you really think that's a good idea?" she asked him, "What if somebody sees?"

"So what!" he retorted, "I've got a good enough excuse to be carrying you, and it's not like it's the first time I've done it. Besides, if you walk anymore on that foot, you're likely to injure it worse."

Deciding that it was best to obey him, Naina placed both her arms around his neck and Raj easily lifted her up, supporting her securely in his arms.

"So now I know what I missed out on last time," Naina told him with a smile, "It's a pity I was unconscious then or I might have fallen for you a lot quicker."

Raj smiled down at her affectionately, it felt good to have her in his arms and he could definitely get used to it. "Right, let's get you to Dr Shalini."

Luckily since both the first and second year cadets were completing their end of year drills, only a few orderlies were around to see them.

When they reached Dr Shalini's door, Raj instructed Naina to knock and she let go of his neck to do so. Within a matter of seconds, Dr Shalini opened the door and stared at them with a look on her face that clearly said, 'What the heck is going on?'.

"Uh, Major?"

"Dr Shalini, could you please step aside?" Raj asked her, straining slightly after having carried Naina all that way. Shalini did so, and Raj stepped inside, carrying Naina to the infirmary bed and placing her upon it.

"Naina injured her ankle during Major Nair's drill." Raj explained, and Shalini looked quite relieved. "What?" Raj asked her, "What did you think had happened?"

"Honestly I was afraid that maybe you had decided to elope and had come for my blessing."

Despite her pain, Naina laughed at this, but Raj just gave Dr Shalini a look that clearly said 'Please do not start again!'.

Dr Shalini examined Naina's ankle, feeling where it had become swollen.

"It's just a sprain," she told her, "So we'll strap it and put some ice on it and you'll have to stay off the foot for a few days. I'll give you some crutches to help you get around until it's better."

"Thank god it happened in the last drill." Naina said, "If I'd injured myself earlier it would've been disastrous."

"Well don't worry, Naina, you'll definitely be back on your feet by the time of the graduation ball." Shalini told her, "So don't be worried that you won't be able to dance."

Naina sighed, "I'd forgotten all about the ball with all of the tension of exams." She told Shalini.

"Well it's best that you concentrate on your exams first anyway." Shalini told her, "Afterwards, you can begin planning what to wear."

Quickly she strapped up Naina's ankle, and gave her some ice and a balm to rub on it along with some tablets to take in case the pain was too much. As soon as she was done, Raj moved forward, ready to pick Naina up again.

"Sir, I can uh, use the crutches." Naina told him, a little embarrassed in front of Shalini.

Shalini tried not to smile, thinking it was funny that Naina was calling Raj 'Sir' in front of her.

Ignoring Naina's protests, Raj picked her up, and then turned back to Shalini. "I'll come and pick up her crutches in a minute." Raj told her.

"No problem," Shalini replied, "I'll come with you to drop Cadet Singh to her room and carry the crutches." She tried not to laugh at the disappointed look on Raj's face, as he had obviously been looking forward to some time alone with Naina.

Shalini accompanied them up the stairs, knowing that if she was with them, there was bound to be less talk about why Raj had been carrying Naina to her room. As soon as they arrived, she leaned the crutches against the wall and watched as Raj gently placed Naina down on the bed, arranging some pillows behind her and placing one of Pooja's cushions underneath her foot. Satisfied that Naina would be comfortable, Shalini turned and left the room, closing the door behind her to give them some privacy.

Raj sat on the end of Naina's bed, smiling at her. It was the first time that they had been alone in days and he was relieved that Shalini had left.

"I was really worried about you when I saw you fall," he told her, "It was difficult for me to not go and try to help you."

"I'm glad you didn't," Naina told him with a smile, "I needed to finish the drill by myself. In the end I'll at least get some marks for it."

Getting up, Raj came forward and sat on the edge of the bed, right in front of Naina, leaning forward he kissed her gently on the cheek. "That's what I love about you Naina," he told her, "Your bravery," another kiss, "Your determination," Another kiss, this time closer to her jaw, "Your fighting spirit," this time even closer to her mouth. "Your…"

As he leaned in, about to kiss her again, the door burst open. "Naina, are you…." Pooja entered the room quickly, obviously worried about her friend. Stopping dead in her tracks, she realised that she had obviously interrupted something by the embarrassed look on both their faces. "I'm so sorry, Sir!" Pooja said, "I didn't know you were here or I wouldn't have come in!" She was absolutely mortified about disturbing them. "I'll just go and…"

"No it's alright, Cadet Ghai." Raj told her, thinking that today really wasn't his lucky day. "I just brought Naina to her room, I'll go now…" Reluctantly, he got up from the bed and leaning forward, placed an innocent kiss on her forehead. "I'll come back and check on you later," Raj promised, "Make sure you don't try to walk too much." Then with a last longing look back at Naina, he left the room.

Slapping herself on her forehead at her own stupidity, Pooja apologised. "I'm so sorry, Naina, I didn't mean to disturb the two of you like that! I know that you and your Shahrukh get so little private talk time together."

"It's okay, Pooja." Naina told her, "I know you didn't mean it. Besides, I should probably be studying for the exams anyway. You know I want to win the best cadet award, and Raj really wants it too, I don't want to disappoint him."

"I know you can do it, Naina." Pooja told her confidently, "I've already laid my bet with the Jat."

Naina laughed at this, "Well hopefully you'll be winning the money and not losing it!" she told Pooja.

"You just rest now," Pooja reassured her, "I'll go and get you whatever books you want so that you can start studying."

Pooja and Naina settled down to study then, knowing that they didn't have any time to waste. The exams were starting after a week, and they had a lot to cover before then.

/

Having settled at his desk to do some work, Raj was disturbed by a knock at the door. "Come in!" he called out, and was surprised to see Aalekh step into the room. All he hoped was that the young man wasn't there to express any disapproval. Of all of Naina's friends, Raj knew that Aalekh was the one whose approval he needed the most.

"How is Naina now, Sir?" Aalekh asked Raj, shutting the door as he came in.

"She's just sprained her ankle," Raj told him, "Dr Shalini strapped it, and Naina will have to take it easy for a few days. She'll be in her room if you want to see her." 

"Actually Sir, I was thinking that now would be a good time to have a chat with you." Aalekh told him, immediately making Raj nervous. Raj couldn't believe how unsettled he felt, after all, he was Aalekh's superior officer, so why did he feel like he should be proving himself?

"And what did you want to talk about, Aalekh?" Raj asked, although he knew perfectly well what Aalekh wanted to say.

"About you and Naina."

"What is it that you want to say?" Raj asked uncomfortably, hoping that this conversation wasn't going to turn out badly.

"Sir, I want to be honest with you." Aalekh began, "Naina is happy with you, she's happier with you than she ever was in the past. I know that you love her a lot and that you don't want to hurt her in any way."

Raj nodded, "You're right, Aalekh."

"But if I have any family in this world then it's only Naina," Aalekh told him very simply, "So I'm very protective of her. Sir, I want to know that you'll do whatever is necessary to keep her happy."

Raj stared at Aalekh touched by the younger man's sentiments. Finally he was able to speak again, "Aalekh, I promise you, that I will do my very best to always make Naina happy. What I'd like to know, is do I have your approval?"

"You're the best choice for Naina." Aalekh told him. "I'm happy that you two are together." Then he turned and left, closing the door after him.

Raj sat there without moving for a few minutes. One more hurdle had been overcome, he now officially had Aalekh's approval. If only winning over Naina's parents was that easy. He knew that he was going to see them at the graduation ceremony, and he was praying that they would have changed their minds about him before then. Otherwise his and Naina's hopes were gone, and they would be waiting even longer to bring their relationship into the open.

Raj wondered how many years it would take for them to accept him.

However many it was, he was prepared to wait.

Naina was worth it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

The days before the exams passed in a daze for most of KMA. It wasn't unusual to see cadets muttering to themselves as they walked down the halls or even as they sat eating their lunch, memorising all of the facts and figures they would need to pass their written tests. Most of the time everybody could be found in the library or the canteen, reading books and writing down notes. All their teachers could do for them was to provide moral support and answer questions. Raj purposefully kept away from Naina, knowing that she didn't need to be distracted right now.

Everybody was so busy that they had hardly any time at all to prepare for the graduation ball, which would be held the night before their actual graduation. While some cadets chose to take an afternoon off to go shopping, others requested their parents to send an outfit from home, not wanting to take any time off study. Pooja was glad that she didn't have to worry, because along with a sherwani for Ali, his sisters had sent her a beautiful salwar kameez to wear. Naina had just been considering whether she should ask her parents to send her an outfit, when she entered her room after a long day of study to see a box sitting on her bed.

Curiously, Naina opened it and gasped in delight when she saw a gorgeous sari inside, with some matching bangles. Seeing a note underneath she quickly picked it up to read.

'A small present for my best cadet.'

Raj hadn't signed his name, but Naina knew immediately who the present was from. Squealing in happiness, Naina held the sari up against her in front of the mirror, marvelling at what a good choice he had made. She was so excited that it didn't even occur to her that she had no idea how to wear a sari.

Placing it carefully back in the box, Naina ran out of the room intending to go and thank Raj immediately. On the way out she crashed into Pooja who was just on the way to their room before dinner.

"Careful Naina, you almost injured me with such a fast outgoing!" Pooja told her with a smile, "What's the hurry?"

"Go and see what's on my bed and then you'll understand!" Naina told her with a grin, and without waiting for a reply, ran off again in the direction of Raj's office. Naina was long gone when Pooja opened the box, but the rest of the girls' hostel could hear her shriek with delight that her friend had gotten such a lovely outfit for the ball.

Naina didn't stop until she reached Raj's room, flinging the door open without bothering to knock. At the sound, Raj looked up from the book he was reading and smiled, knowing exactly why Naina had come to see him. Quickly she closed the door behind her.

"Thank you," was the first thing she told him, still grinning in happiness. "It's the most beautiful gift I've ever received."

"I'm glad," Raj told her, standing up from the chair, "Because it's the first gift I've ever gotten you."

Naina realised that he was right, it was the first gift she'd ever received from him. "Well it's perfect," she told him, "Where did you find the time to go and get it without me realising?"

"Well madam, you've been so busy with your exam preparations that it was quite easy for me to sneak out of the academy and go shopping." He told her.

"It's good you gave it to me today, I was about to call my parents and ask them to get me something." She informed him, "After all, there's only five days left until the ball. I know we have a day after exams end but I didn't want to wait until then in case I didn't find anything."

"I haven't had to chance to ask you, you've been so busy with exams. Who are you going with to the ball?" Raj trusted Naina, he was happy for her to go with anybody, but he still hoped it was somebody he would approve of.

"Why? Are you getting jealous?" Naina asked teasingly, "Afraid that I'll go with somebody better looking than you?"

Knowing perfectly well that she was joking, Raj fixed a stern look on his face. "Don't even try that with me, Naina, you know I'm not the jealous type. But yes, I want to make sure that you're going with somebody… suitable."

"Oh…. 'suitable'", Naina continued, still teasing him, "And what would that be? Completely ugly? Blind? Or maybe forty years old and bald?"

Raj shrugged, it didn't sound too bad to him.

"So Major, what are you going to do if my date wants to dance with me?" Naina continued, "What are you going to do if he thinks I look as good in that sari as you think I will?"

Taking measured steps towards Naina, Raj watched in amusement as she backed away slightly, wondering if she'd taken the joke a bit too far. Reaching out to grab her hand, Raj spun her so that she was in his arms, placing his hands on his waist to make sure she couldn't escape.

"Well…." Raj drawled, drawing the word out slowly. "It wouldn't matter to me, because I would still know that you're mine," leaning down, he kissed her cheek, "and only mine." He stopped and considered for a minute, "But yes, if he seemed to be touching you too much, or in the wrong places, or maybe even at all, then I might have to break his arms."

He grinned down at her to let her know he was joking, well, half joking.

"Oh God," Naina exclaimed dramatically, "In that case I'm not letting Yudi anywhere near you before the graduation ball. I can't have you scaring off my date when it was such an effort to get one."

Raj stared at Naina, wondering if he'd misheard her. "You're going with Yudi?" he asked incredulously.

"Why? Is there anything wrong with Yudi?" Naina asked him, raising one eyebrow, "Are you insulting my choice of a date?"

"No, not at all!" Raj told her hastily, "In fact I think you've made a perfect choice. I'm just a bit surprised that's all…"

"Well think about it, how many options do I really have?" Naina asked him, looking at it from a practical position. "Obviously I can't turn up with you. I didn't want to go with Huda, as he's only recently exorcised the ghost of his obsession with me. Besides, he won't have any trouble getting a date. Aalekh is going with Neelu and Ali is going with Pooja. That left Yudi and I without dates, so we decided to go together since neither of us can go with who we'd really like to."

Raj didn't make a comment about Naina's last statement, he knew perfectly well what she was referring to. They'd never discussed the bond that they'd both noticed between Shalini and Yudi, feeling that it was best for those two to work it out themselves without any interference.

"So who are you going with?" Naina asked him, placing her arms around his neck, since Raj's were still around her waist. He began to sway with her in his arms, dancing to imaginary music.

"Shalini, who else?" he told her with a slight shrug.

"Who else?" Naina said in the same joking tone, "Should I be jealous now?"

Raj laughed, "Well considering that there's only two eligible women on the academy staff, and the other one is Lolitaji, who did you think I was going to go with?"

Naina laughed at that, imagining Raj going to the ball with Lolitaji, and Suriji glaring at him the whole night.

"Well, good choice," she told him, "At least this way I won't be worried about whether your date is flirting with you all night."

"So are you going to save at least one dance for me?" Raj asked, taking one of his hands off her waist to grab one of her hands, so that they were now in a dancing pose. Slowly he began to waltz her around the room, and Naina giggled as he spun her around.

"I think that we could probably manage one dance without anybody suspecting anything." She told him. "That's if your date can spare you."

"I'm sure that she will," Raj replied, "But the real difficulty is going to be resisting you for the rest of the night."

Naina smiled at him, blushing slightly due to his words and Raj dipped her suddenly, then keeping her in the same position, leaned down to kiss her.

"A good luck kiss, for the exams." He told her, and then swung Naina back up again.

"Then I'm certainly going to come first." She replied, "But just make sure you don't get this carried away at the ball," she warned him, "I would hate to have gotten this far only to be discovered the day before I graduate."

"Well it'll be difficult to resist, but I should be able to control myself." Raj's eyes sparkled, "And besides, why do you think I'm going with Shalini? If I start forgetting, I know she'll pull me back into line."

Naina laughed, agreeing with him. She didn't mind Dr Shalini's interference because she knew that Shalini was only trying to protect them.

"But, uh, Raj…" Naina began to say hesitantly.

"What is it, Naina?" he asked her.

"Come to my room half an hour before the ball starts," she told him, looking up through lowered eyelashes, "I want you to be the first one to see me wearing the sari."

With a last longing backwards glance, she left Raj and headed back to the mess to join Pooja, smiling at herself while she imagined his reaction.

Raj stood there in a daze for a moment, and sighed at the thought of Naina wearing the sari he had bought for her. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he decided he was very thankful that she was graduating in less than a week. At least after that he wouldn't be breaking any rules when he had these types of thoughts about her.

Until then, he was just going to concentrate very hard to keep his feelings under control.

/

Shalini stopped off at Raj's office on the morning of the graduation ball, knocking on the door and coming in with a huge smile.

"Are you excited about tonight, Major?" she asked him.

"Of course, Doctor." Raj told her, "In fact I think I'm even more excited about tonight than I was about my own graduation ball."

Shalini laughed, "Well I hope that it's at least partially because of who your date is this time. By the way, who was your date to your own graduation ball?"

Raj shook his head with a wry grin, "Her name was Kiran. I barely knew her, Navin was the one that found me a date for the ball, I had no idea how to ask a girl."

"Well I went to my ball with…" Shalini suddenly trailed off sadly, remembering who it was that she had attended the ball with. "With the man I ended up marrying."

Raj looked at Shalini in sympathy, she never talked about her husband but he knew she had been hurt deeply by the way he'd treated her in the past.

"Shalini, can I say one thing?" Raj asked her carefully.

"Really Raj, it's okay, I'm fine…"

"Shalini, you deserve better than that." Raj told her, "Don't be afraid to be happy, and if you're not happy with him, then there's nothing to stop you from starting life again."

Shalini just nodded.

"Promise me that you'll think about what I've said." Raj counselled her, putting a strict tone into his voice.

"Accha, baba." Shalini replied, a small smile coming back to her face, "I forgot the whole reason I came to see you. What time and where shall we meet for the ball tonight? I was thinking that we could meet half an hour early to go and then…"

"Uh, can we meet a little later?" Raj asked her uncomfortably.

"And why is that?" Shalini replied, immediately realising that something was going on.

"Well, I'd promised to meet Naina half an hour before the ball." Raj told her, trying to stop himself from blushing in vain.

"Oho, so that's it! Even before the ball you're ditching me for another girl." Shalini joked.

"Shalini you know it's not like that…" Raj started to say before he realised it was a joke, "Actually she wanted me to be the first one to see her in the sari I bought for her."

"Wow Major Rajveer, I never knew that you could be so romantic, gifting your girlfriend a sari." Shalini teased him, "Well in that case, you can meet me outside the infirmary five minutes before the ball starts, that should give you two love birds plenty of time."

Raj shook his head as Shalini left the room, somehow no matter what, she always ending up making him blush with her comments.

/

Half an hour before the ball, Pooja had already left to meet Ali. The two were doubly celebrating as their parents had called just that morning to say that their engagement would be held four days after graduation. And so Naina was alone in the room, still trying to work out how she should drape her sari. She regretted not paying more attention when her mother was getting dressed up or learning from her, now Raj was due to arrive any minute, and Naina was still only half ready.

Hearing a knock on the door, she opened it a crack and peered out to see Raj standing there, an expectant look on his face.

"You can't come in." she told him.

"Why not?" he asked, sounding disappointed, "I thought that you were the one who told me to come here."

"You can't come in because I'm not ready yet, and I don't know if I ever will be!" Naina exclaimed dramatically.

"What's wrong?" Raj asked her, genuinely worried that perhaps something serious had happened.

"I can't work out how to wear this sari!" Naina exclaimed with a note of despair in her voice.

Raj had to stop himself from laughing, knowing that Naina wouldn't be too amused if he did.

"Let me in, Naina, and I'll try to help you." He told her, "Otherwise somebody is sure to catch me standing out here in the corridor."

Realising that Raj had a point, Naina quickly let him in and closed the door behind him.

Staring at her, for a moment Raj forgot to breathe.

If she looked like this when she hadn't been able to get the sari right, then how would she look when she was finished?

She had kept her hair loose, and had already completed her makeup. Raj could see the bangles lying on her dresser, waiting to be put on. While she had draped the sari over one shoulder, he could see that the pleats at the bottom were clearly a mess. It didn't matter to him, because she was still the most beautiful sight he had seen in his entire life.

Noticing the far off look in Raj's eyes as he gazed at her, Naina quickly snapped her fingers in front of his face to get him back to reality.

"As happy as I am about your reaction, it's not helping me to get ready!" She moaned, and Raj quickly came back to attention, still struggling not to grin.

"Well, I can try and help you." Raj told her.

"And what do you know about putting saris on?" Naina asked him, "Because for your sake, the answer had better be 'not much'."

"Well the answer is 'not much'," Raj assured her, "But I can still try to help. What if I hold the material for you, and you work on the pleats?"

Naina nodded, right now she didn't have a better idea.

Crouching down, Raj held the material at Naina's feet. Naina tried to concentrate on what she was doing, but his nearness to her, and the way she could feel his warm breath on her waist kept distracting her. Finally after she had tried to fold the same bit of cloth and tuck it in for the fifth time, she gave up.

"This isn't working!" she declared, and Raj looked up, startled out of the daze he had been in while staring at Naina's waist.

"How about we start again?" he asked her, and without waiting for an answer, stood up, and reached forward, about to pull the sari away from where it was draped across her shoulder.

"Raj!" Naina yelled, smacking his fingers away lightly.

"What?" he asked, genuinely confused.

Naina raised her eyebrows at him, "I'm not sure if you're more interested in getting this sari on me or off me."

"Well the second option doesn't sound too bad either," he told her with a smile that made her melt inside.

Naina held herself together because she had a suspicion that if she let him take the sari off her shoulder, they would lose all hope of ever making it to the ball at all.

"Just…" she began, steadying her breath, "Please go and find me somebody who actually knows how to put on a sari!"

"And where would I find someone who knows how to do that?" Raj asked her, his mind still not quite working since it was stuck on the idea of taking Naina's sari off rather than putting it on.

"Go and ask Dr Shalini!" Naina told him, "She should be waiting for you by now, please go and bring her quickly, we've only got fifteen minutes left until the ball starts."

"Alright," Raj agrees, "But just one kiss first?"

"You'll ruin my makeup." Naina told him, unable to help smiling anyway.

Taking a step towards her, before Naina could realise what he was doing, he had leaned down and kissed her on her exposed shoulder, sending shivers down her spine. With a last intense look directed at Naina, Raj left the room.

/

Shalini was waiting outside the infirmary for Raj, enjoying watching the cadets walk past in their formal wear when Yudi came up to her with a smile.

"Hi ma'am, you're looking beautiful tonight." He told her, "Where's your date?"

"Well Yudi, I expect that right now he's probably with yours." Shalini whispered to him, and they both grinned. Neither of them minded the fact that their dates were more interested in each other than them. "And the same goes for you Cadet, you're looking very handsome tonight."

"Thank you ma'am, actually I…" he was about to say more when Raj came running up, skidding to a stop in front of them.

"Shalini, I need your help, it's an emergency!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"What's wrong, Raj?" she asked, genuinely worried that something might have happened to Naina.

"Naina can't work out how to wear her sari and she needs your help!" Shalini almost burst out laughing, this was the last thing she'd been expecting. Then she looked down at her watch.

"And it took you fifteen minutes to work this out?"

"Shalini, I…" then glancing in Yudi's direction, "Please, not in front of the Cadet!"

"Uh, it's perfectly alright, Sir." Yudi replied, "Whatever goes on between you and Naina is your business. I'm only her date for tonight."

"Alright, I'll go and help Naina and then we'll both come down. You two wait here." Shalini told them. Raj and Yudi both sat down on the bench outside the infirmary, hoping that they didn't have too long to wait.

Ten minutes later the two ladies arrived, and Raj gazed at Naina with utter love and adoration in his eyes. With bracelets on her wrists and a shy look in her eyes, she looked at him to judge his reaction.

"Well, shall we go?" Shalini asked, amused to see Raj's expression. He nodded, and reaching out his arm, almost grabbed the wrong hand. "Ahem." Shalini told him, and Raj once again snapped himself out of his daze and took Shalini's hand instead.

He could hear Naina and Yudi's conversation as the two walked behind them.

"You look beautiful tonight, Naina."

"Thanks Yudi, you're looking very dashing too!"

"Good luck for the best cadet award tonight, I'm sure that you'll get it."

"I hope so, but let's see. I can't wait to see everybody else, I've only seen Pooja's outfit so far."

"Well they'll all probably be there already, I think Neelu was coming about half an hour early to meet Aalekh."

As they reached the area for the ball, Naina and Yudi spotted the rest of their friends and went to meet them. Naina glanced back over her shoulder at Raj and smiled, as if to say that she wouldn't be far away.

He nodded at her in reply, and followed Shalini over to where the rest of the staff members were standing. He could barely take his eyes off Naina, trying to watch her without giving away what he was doing to anybody else. However Raj's plan failed when he didn't look where he was going and tripped over a step, almost falling down and only saved because Shalini helped him at the last moment.

"Raj, I know it's difficult," Shalini whispered, "But you can manage to live for a few minutes without looking at your cadet."

Raj smiled, today was the second last day that she would officially be his cadet. After tomorrow's ceremony she would become an army officer, and he suspected that it was going to be the proudest moment of his entire life.

Until then, they had the entirety of tonight to enjoy themselves.

He couldn't think of a better way to end his two years at KMA.

/

Naina and Yudi walked over to join their friends excitedly, Yudi swapping high fives with the rest of the guys while Naina hugged Neelu and Pooja, and said hi to Huda's date, a girl from their batch named Leila.

"Everybody is looking so gorgeous in their new covers tonight!" Pooja gushed.

"So Pooja, I hear that we have a double reason to celebrate tonight." Neelu said with a grin, having already heard the news from Aalekh.

"That's right! Four days after graduation is Ali's and my engagement and you had all better put it in your reminder lists!" Pooja told them, while Ali just smiled happily.

"Pooja, could any of us ever miss your engagement?" Naina asked her, "We wouldn't miss it for the world!"

"And yes, Naina, make sure that you tell your personal signal to come along too." Pooja said with a wink.

"What?" Leila asked, obviously confused, while Ali gave Pooja a look to say that she had said too much and Naina began coughing in shock.

"Nothing darling, shall we dance?" Huda asked her, and quickly took his date away from there before Pooja could say anything else that might reveal the truth.

Pooja made a small face to say she was sorry, but Naina just laughed, not as nervous now that it was their graduation tomorrow. After that she'd have nothing left to fear, nothing except her parents that was.

"Well guys, how about if we go and dance too?" Yudi asked them, "The music is quite good so why waste it?"

They were playing fast songs at the moment that all of the cadets could dance to easily.

"Exactly! This is my type of ring tone!" Pooja announced excitedly and dragged Ali off to the dance floor.

Shrugging, Aalekh followed them, holding Neelu's hand.

"Well, Naina?" Yudi asked her.

Naina found herself glancing towards Raj, as much as she wished they could have danced together it wasn't a possibility. He gave her a small smile over the distance, and she found herself returning it.

"Sure, Yudi!" Naina told him with a grin, "Let's get this party started!"

Meanwhile, Raj was wishing that he was enjoying the party as much as the cadets seemed to be. The music was a bit too fast for any of the teachers to feel it was appropriate to dance at the moment, so they were standing around talking instead.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Shalini whispered to him.

"Well, uh, I mean, no…"

"Well I am too." Shalini replied, "I wish we could join them on the dance floor."

"Tonight's their night," Raj replied, "As long as they're having fun, that's all that matters."

"Exactly!" she replied, "But I can't wait for BC to announce the Best Cadet award, I really am excited to find out who it is."

"I'm feeling nervous," Raj admitted, "I really hope that Naina has won it."

"Don't worry, she's sure to." Shalini told him reassuringly, "She did well in all of her exams, and she's put in the most work out of everybody this year."

Raj nodded, just hoping that Shalini was right.

He was happy just watching Naina dancing, seeing her enjoy herself with her friends. He didn't get to watch her this way too often, and he loved seeing the smile on her face, the happiness in her eyes. He would do anything to ensure that she always stayed happy this way, untouched by any further sorrow.

Raj noticed Suriji whisper something to Lolitaji, who smiled and nodded and then he disappeared. Raj thought that he knew exactly what was going on, and he was proved right when Suriji returned along with some dhol players and began singing in Punjabi. He was clapping along and enjoying himself when he suddenly saw Yudi and Huda run out of the crowd of dancers and towards him and Shalini.

"Oh no," he started to tell them, "I can't…"

"That's right, Sir!" Huda replied cheerfully, "You can't refuse tonight!" And grabbing hold of Raj's wrist, while Yudi grabbed Shalini's they dragged them both into the crowd of dancers. When Huda released him suddenly, Raj felt himself stumble forward slightly, bumping against Naina. Seeing the grin on the boy's face, Raj knew it had been on purpose, but he didn't mind at all.

Naina gave Raj an apologetic look, knowing that he wasn't used to dancing to this type of music. But looking at the dancing, happy cadets around him, as well as Suriji, Lolitaji and Shalini who were all dancing, Raj decided that it wouldn't hurt to get involved either. As soon as he started doing bhangra moves, Naina gasped in surprise, covering her mouth with her hands and laughing. Raj gave her a look that clearly said, 'what, you thought that I couldn't do it?' and knocked his shoulder against hers to tell her to get dancing.

Naina wasn't quite sure how to dance the Bhangra in a sari, but she did her best, enjoying herself thoroughly. Both of them forgot to worry about people watching them, instead enjoying dancing with each other and getting into the spirit of the dance.

They had all been dancing together for some time, and Raj was getting completely involved in the music when suddenly the drums stopped and he heard Brigadier Chandook's voice.

"I'm glad to see you all enjoying yourselves so much, including our faculty members." He announced with a smile, and Raj and Shalini grinned at each other, knowing that BC didn't mind them dancing with the cadets.

"Tonight is a special night because it's your last night in KMA." Brigadier Chandook announced, "Tomorrow after your graduation ceremony you will all be leaving for your homes, and then after one month will join your respective duties. For the last two years we have tried to make you capable and brave soldiers, and I know that we have succeeded in our duty."

All of the cadets cheered at this, and Brigadier Chandook waited for them to quiet down before continuing. "I hope that you will all bring honour to the name of KMA while serving your country. Tonight we are going to celebrate you all becoming proud protectors of India, and tonight I also have the pleasure of announcing the best cadet award. That cadet who has particularly excelled in all of their studies and training, and has been an example to us all."

Naina hadn't even noticed when she'd grabbed Raj's hand, squeezing it. She was nervous, hoping that the award would go to her. However if it were to go to any of her friends then she would've been equally happy. Raj was so caught up in the excitement that he didn't even care if anybody was looking at them, he held Naina's hand as they waited for the announcement. Both Pooja and Aalekh did notice, and positioned themselves so that anybody looking at the pair wouldn't realise they were holding hands.

"In the past two years, one particular cadet has stood out for their determination, their courage and their dedication to KMA's motto, strength and honour. I'm sure that all of you have guessed who I'm talking about by now, that cadet is Naina Singh Ahluwalia!" Brigadier Chandook announced and a huge cheer went up in the hall. Naina was quite popular among the cadets, as everybody admired what she had been through to reach this point and how she had never abandoned her beliefs even in the worst of times.

Turning to face Raj, Naina's eyes glowed with excitement, and unable to help himself, he hugged her tightly, lifting her up off the ground. Realising a moment too late what he had done, he quickly put her back down and the rest of Naina's friends started hugging her and congratulating her.

"So would Cadet Naina Singh Ahluwalia please come to the stage to receive her award?" BC requested, and Naina quickly made her way to the stage, making sure that she didn't trip on her sari on the way because of the excitement.

Happily, she accepted her trophy from BC, who then gestured to her that she should say something. Naina was a bit stunned, while she had hoped to win, she had never been confident enough to actually prepare a speech.

"Hi guys," she started off, "Well for the past two years we've lived and trained together, and I can say with certainty that I know we're all going to miss each other a lot once we've all gone to our new posts. I know that all of us are going to prove to everybody that KMA really is the best!" This comment was met by another huge cheer. "If I've gotten this award, then it's not because I'm better than any other cadet." Naina announced a bit emotionally, surprising everybody. "It's only because of the support and good wishes of my friends, who have stood by me in every difficult moment." Then her eyes sought out Raj in the crowd, "And because I've had a mentor like Major Rajveer who has shown me what the true meaning of a good soldier is."

Saying this, she stood back from the microphone and left the stage, as everybody in the hall began to clap and cheer.

"Congratulations, Cadet Ahluwalia." Brigadier Chandook told her, "I'm very proud of you."

"Well Sir, how about a dance then?" Naina asked him with a smile, "You had told me that you would dance with me when we were at the fresher's ball, and now it's the graduation ball. I don't want to lose my opportunity."

Hearing from a distance, Raj raised his eyebrows, amazed and a little proud of Naina's confidence.

"Well alright Cadet Ahluwalia, how can I refuse?" Brigadier Chandook replied, smiling at her in a fatherly way, "One dance won't do any harm."

The DJ started up some formal music, and Brigadier Chandook began to dance with Naina as they chatted politely about KMA, her brother Navin and her plans for the future.

As Raj watched proudly, tears of happiness welling up in his eyes, Shalini leaned over. "Congratulations, Major." She told him. "Your cadet is the best cadet."

"My cadet has always been the best cadet." Raj told her with a grin, "Now Shalini, would you like to dance?"

Smiling, she accepted, and they made their way out to the dance floor where they were soon joined by other pairs.

When the music was over, Brigadier Chandook walked over to where Raj and Shalini were standing, Naina following him.

"Well Major, I feel that I should congratulate you as well." Brigadier Chandook told Raj, "After all, it's your protégé that has become best cadet."

"Thank you, Sir." Raj replied, "I really am very proud of her. I always knew that she could do it."

"Why don't you dance with Cadet Ahluwalia, Major Shekawat?" Brigadier Chandook asked him, while Raj tried not to look astonished.

"Well Sir, I…"

"Really, you can't refuse tonight of all nights. After all, your protégé has just won the best cadet award."

"Well Sir, if you say so…" Raj said seriously, hiding his happiness very well. Then bowing down slightly, he extended his hand towards Naina. "Cadet Ahluwalia, would you do me the pleasure of dancing with me?"

"Of course,, Sir, I would be honoured." Naina replied seriously, even as her eyes twinkled at him. She placed her hand in his, and together they walked to the dance floor, then turned to face one other. Raj lost no time in taking one of her hands in his, he placed the other on her waist, on the side which was not covered by her sari. Feeling his hand settle on her skin, Naina gave Raj a stern look.

"Brigadier Chandook is watching, you know." She informed him.

"Brigadier Chandook is the one who told me to dance with you." He replied with a grin. Knowing that Raj was trying to tease her, Naina just smiled back, shaking her head slightly in amusement.

Slowly they began to dance, bringing back memories of the time when Raj had taught her dancing in the empty mess before the fresher's ball. Naina noticed Yudi asking Dr Shalini to dance, and when the pair came out to the dance floor she smiled approvingly. Soon many couples had joined them, but it was obvious to everybody watching who the best pair on the dance floor were.

"So tonight is my last night as your cadet." Naina informed him.

"You'll always be my cadet, Naina." Raj told her, gazing down at her with such adoration and love in his eyes, that Naina's breath caught in her throat.

"Then will I have to keep calling you Sir for the rest of my life?" Naina joked, as Raj twirled her out and then back towards him again.

"Only if we're both at work." Raj told her seriously, "Otherwise I would prefer you to call me Raj. I don't think I've ever liked my name as much as I do when you say it."

"Well I do like calling you Raj better," Naina told him, "But I think I'll miss you calling me Cadet Naina 'Ah' Singh."

"What about Naina 'Ah' Singh Shekawat?" Raj asked her casually, and Naina was so surprised that she stumbled slightly, only managing not to fall because Raj tightened his grip on her waist.

"Are you…" she asked incredulously.

"Not officially," Raj told her with a smile, amused by her reaction, "When I do it officially it will be with a lot more style than this."

"Then…." Naina let the statement trail off questioningly, wanting to hear him say it.

"Then it should be understood between us." Raj told her, pulling her closer so that they were dancing slightly more intimately, "That one day you'll be Naina 'Ah' Singh Shekawat."

Naina couldn't help smiling, and feeling a little shy at the same moment. She had known that they would get married eventually, but she hadn't expected him to bring up the topic just yet.

"I think that sounds good," she told him quietly, looking downwards as she smiled. She couldn't see Raj's expression but she could feel his happiness.

The music ended, and Raj dipped her down, bringing her up again quickly and leaving her slightly dizzy.

After this Naina went back to her friends, and Raj to the faculty members, for the rest of the night trading secret smiles with one another.

Tomorrow would be their next big test, when Naina's parents came to her graduation, she would see how they reacted to Raj's presence.

No matter what happened, their secret agreement would give her the inner strength to do whatever was necessary and to overcome whatever obstacles stood in her way.

Naina smiled, the name Naina 'Ah' Singh Shekawat did have a certain ring to it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Naina awoke extra early in the morning, even before the alarm had gone off. For once, Pooja was also quick to get up, both of them knew exactly how important this day in their lives would be. They got ready quietly, it was only once they had worn their formal uniforms and were braiding their hair that Pooja began to speak, sounding very emotional.

"Naina, I can't believe that our talk time with this academy is about to end. I didn't even realise when two years had passed, there was so much masti, so much fun with all of you. Now we're all going to be far away from each other…"

Naina came and sat beside her friend on the bed, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, Pooja." She told her, "Although we're all separating for now, we'll always be the best of friends. And you and I will be together for a few more years at least."

Pooja brightened up at this, when Naina had announced that she was going to pursue medical training after graduation, Pooja had soon decided that it would be a good idea for her to do so too. Both of them knew that as female soldiers it was unlikely they would ever be sent to the frontlines of a war to fight. Pooja had also pointed out that as a member of a medical team she could be assigned to the same base as Ali without any conflict of interest. Naina had soon realised that this was a very good point indeed.

When the girls were done getting ready, they decided it would be best to finish their packing. Naina packed her sari and bangles from the night before especially carefully, knowing that she would always treasure this first gift from Raj.

The thought of separating from him, even for a few months, made her chest tighten as if somebody was squeezing it painfully hard. Naina had gotten so used to his presence that she couldn't imagine not being able to see him anytime she wished. However she knew that Pooja was about to face the same situation as well, and both of them just had to be brave. Naina couldn't help thinking sadly that at least Pooja would be getting engaged to the boy she loved while Naina… she had been incredibly tense all morning thinking about how her parents would react to Raj, whether they would had forgiven him or not yet.

Noticing Naina's silence and the worried look on her face, Pooja instantly understood what the matter was.

"Don't worry Naina, I'm sure that your parents will have forgiven him by now." Pooja told Naina reassuringly, but Naina just nodded mutely, not daring to hope that it would be the case.

"Actually Naina, in all the excitement I'd forgotten to ask you something," Pooja continued, "Do you want to come home with me after graduation? There's only four days until the engagement and I know there'll be lots of preparations to do." She paused, her face unusually serious, "Naina, you're my best friend. It would mean a lot to me if you could be there for everything."

Naina hugged Pooja, she really did love her friend and she would do anything for her happiness. "I'll have to ask Ma and Baba." She told Pooja, "As long as they agree then I'll definitely come home with you after graduation!"

After this both of the girls headed down to the canteen for breakfast where they met the rest of their friends. Everybody except Huda was too nervous to eat, but the Haryanvi was able to eat just as much as usual, repeating that his mummyji said you should always have a full stomach.

Naina kept glancing towards the doorway of the canteen, expecting Raj to arrive at any moment. She desperately wanted to see him before her parents arrived, and there was only an hour to go until then.

Her wish was granted five minutes later when he walked into the mess, looking almost as tense as Naina was feeling. She knew that as excited as he was about her graduation, he was also nervous about seeing her parents again for the first time after he had told them the truth about Navin's death. After all, their entire future depended on her parents changing their mind about him.

Seeing Naina looking at him, Raj nodded almost imperceptibly in her direction, just a slight tilt of his head to let her know that he was there with her, ready to support her. Naina felt some of her courage return, and she finally ate a few bites of her breakfast.

"I can't believe that this is our last day at KMA, guys." Yudi said what they had all been thinking, "I can't believe how much our lives has changed in these past two years."

"Not just our lives, Yudi. We've all changed." Naina told him, "We're not the same people we were when we entered this academy two years ago."

"You're right, Naina." Ali replied, "When I came here my only dream was to become an officer. Instead I got much more than that; friends, love, and I learnt the meaning of being a true soldier."

Pooja began to get emotional again and began sniffing, "I just hope that no matter how far we go on roaming, our connection always remains clear!" she told them all, reaching out to grasp everybody's hands.

"Don't worry Punjaben. It's not like this is the end." Huda told her, "We're all going to see each other at yours and Ali's engagement, and after that you'll have Phoolan for company when you two are studying in Delhi."

"But still, it won't be the same without you guys…"

"It's easy to keep in touch these days," Yudi reminded her, "Letters, email, mobile phones… none of us are going to go out of range!" They all laughed at his use of Pooja's mobile language, and their sweet Punjaben began to feel a bit better.

Soon the family members began arriving, and the cadets became busy in greeting them and catching them up on everything that had happened. Naina's parents were incredibly proud of her when she announced that she'd won best cadet, and that she'd be leading the passing out parade. She just hoped that the happiness was enough to change their feelings towards Raj.

The rest of the cadets were also busy with their parents, and Aalekh was dividing his time between Huda's mummyji and Neelu, both of whom were very happy to see him. It had been decided that Aalekh would go home with Huda for the holidays this time, although Yudi had complained loudly about how it was unfair that he wouldn't be able to escape his parents.

"We're so proud of you, Naina." Her mother told her, "If Navin was alive today then he would've been proud of you too."

"Thank you, Ma." Naina told her, "I'm just lucky that I've had such an excellent mentor while at KMA, if it wasn't for Rajveer Sir then I could never have achieved this…"

"You're still…" her mother had begun saying, and then had quickly stopped, realising that she shouldn't ruin Naina's graduation day by beginning a fight.

Eventually all of the cadets gathered together with their parents, and Pooja's mother and father asked Naina's parents for permission for Naina to come home with them until the engagement. Naina was happy when it was granted, she wanted to be there for every moment leading up to Pooja's big day.

Finally it was the moment they had been waiting for, and the cadets assembled for the last time to hear Brigadier Chandook. It was emotional to hear him speak as they thought about how they had arrived at the academy in the first place and how much had changed since then. They had all grown from selfish young people obsessed by their own goals and desires to mature adults, ready to protect their country and its citizens. Each one of them had completed a personal journey to arrive at this point, a journey which had had many challenges and triumphs. Today was the end of one part of this journey, and the proudest day in many of their lives.

When Brigadier Chandook had finished his speech, they took their oath on the flame. Then there was only one final parade past their faculty members and parents, and they were no longer cadets of KMA, they were now proud Lieutenants in the Indian Army. Throughout the ceremony, Naina didn't even need to turn and see Raj to feel his proud gaze on her.

When the graduation ceremony was over, the cadets rejoined their parents while the faculty members made their way over to mingle between them.

Naina had been trying not to appear nervous when Raj came over to greet her parents. While he appeared calm, she knew him well enough to know how worried he was about what would happen next.

"Hello Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia," he told them, "I would like to congratulate you on your daughter becoming best cadet."

"Thank you," Naina's father replied stiffly without any emotion, "Naina tells us that the achievement is partially due to you acting as her mentor."

"I don't agree Sir, I feel that Naina has achieved this through her own efforts. It has been a pleasure to act as mentor to such a capable cadet."

Naina was proud of Raj for managing to stay so calm and focused in front of her parents, especially when their body language to him was quite cold and unfriendly.

"Major Shekhawat, I would like to thank you for everything you have done for our family." Naina's father told him, in the same cold voice. "You have helped Naina to achieve her goals, and also helped to prove our son innocent. We're grateful to you for this."

"Sir, you don't need to thank me for that, it was my duty." Raj replied quietly, "I had already made myself a promise to do anything possible to prove Navin innocent."

"Well then, we will consider that you have at least partly undone the damage you caused." Naina's father continued, "Now there is no debt remaining between us, and I hope that we won't need to see each other again."

These next words shocked Naina, and she had to stop herself from speaking out and protesting.

For just a second she saw the look of anguish on Raj's face before it changed to an emotionless mask.

"I'm very sorry Mr Ahluwalia," Raj told him, and Naina was amazed that her parents seemed unaffected by the depths of sadness in his voice, "I had wanted things to be different between us but I can respect your decision." He turned, and without looking once at Naina, walked away in the direction of his office.

If that morning Naina had felt like her chest was being squeezed, right now she felt like her heart had fallen into pieces. They had had so many hopes, that her parents would have forgiven him, that they could move on with their lives, and now…

Naina tried not to let the hurt show on her face as she turned to her parents, "Ma, Baba I…"

"Naina, we know that you're grateful to Major Rajveer for whatever he's done for both you and Navin." Her mother told her, "But now that you're no longer his student, there's no reason for you to see him again."

Naina stared at her mother, unable to believe what she had just said. All of her dreams were being crushed to dust, and she had no idea how to tell her parents what the truth really was.

"Well Naina, since you're going home with your friend Pooja, we'll leave now. We've got a long drive ahead of us." Naina's father told her, and her parents both embraced her while Naina remained limp in their arms, unable to hug them back with full feeling.

"I'll see you soon, Ma, Baba." She told them quietly and walked them to their car. The first thing she did was to find Pooja. As soon as Pooja saw Naina, she could tell by her face that something was wrong.

"Naina, what happened?" she asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

"I'll tell you about it later, Pooja." Naina confided quietly, "Are your parents planning to leave just yet? There's something I need to do."

Pooja understood immediately what that something was, and how important it was for Naina to do it. "Go and see him." She replied just as quietly so that none of the people around them could hear. "Ali and I need to say goodbye properly anyway, that should delay them for a bit."

Naina nodded her thanks and quickly walked to Raj's office, knocking softly on the door before she entered. When he looked up his eyes were red, as if he'd been crying.

He stood quickly, and the expression on his face was one of despair curiously mixed with a renewed hope.

"I was afraid that…" he started to say, and then stopped himself.

"You were afraid of what?" Naina asked, confused.

"That you would've left already." Raj told her, "I would've understood then that you… that you were going to obey your parents."

"How could you think that?" Naina asked him, shocked. She walked over, and angrily grabbed him by the shoulders, "How could you think that after everything we've been through I would just abandon you, that I would give up?"

"Because I know how much you love your parents Naina, and how much you want to make them happy. I wouldn't have blamed you if you…" Raj reached up his own hands to hold hers. "I don't want to lose you, Naina, and I'm scared that I will."

That last sentence was too much for Naina to bear, and letting go of his shoulders she collapsed, wrapping her arms around him and crying into his shirt. Raj hugged her to him, kissing her hair, her forehead, her cheeks, as Naina continued to sob.

"I'll never leave you." She told him tearfully, "No matter what happens we're in this together. There's still a lot of time left to convince my parents and if they don't agree in the end… we'll deal with it then."

"I love you, Naina." Raj told her, his eyes burning with the fire of his feelings. "I don't want to lose you, but I'll respect whatever decision you make."

"It will all work out." She reassured him, trying to convince herself as well that her words were true. "They'll agree and… and even if they don't, I'll never leave you." She finished emotionally, looking up into her eyes.

Relieved by the sincerity in her eyes, Raj crushed her to him, hugging her as tightly as possible as if to reassure himself that she was there with him and that she wasn't going to leave him. Eventually when he was feeling calmer and more assured, he loosened his grip on her but Naina continued to lean her head on his chest, not taking her hands from around his waist.

"I'm going home with Pooja to help prepare for the engagement." She told him, "Is there any chance you could arrive early?"

"I'm afraid not," Raj told her regretfully, "They wanted me to join my new duty today itself and I only convinced them with great difficulty to let me join after the engagement. But before that I've got to head to headquarters in Delhi for various official tasks. I'll only be there for the day of the engagement."

"And then after that…" Naina asked him, already knowing what the answer would be.

"After that I'll have to join my new duty straight away and it might be some time before we see each other."

"Then we'll have to make the most of whatever time we've got." Naina told him seriously, lifting her head from her chest to look into his eyes and raising one hand to touch his cheek tenderly. Raj leaned down to kiss her, trying to convey all of the love and passion he felt for her in that one action. They wouldn't see each other for another four days and then after that… for months until Raj could get leave.

He slipped his hands to the back of her head, his fingers immersing themselves in her hair as the kiss continued.

They were disturbed by a quiet knocking at the door. Releasing Naina reluctantly, Raj walked to the door to open it, and saw Pooja waiting there.

"I'm really sorry to be disturbing you, Sir." She told him, looking a little embarrassed, "But my parents say it's time to go, and they asked me to go and fetch Naina."

"That's quite alright, Pooja." Raj told her with a smile, knowing how bad she was feeling. "And you don't have to call me Sir, I'm not your teacher anymore."

"Well, yes, but you'll always be Rajveer Sir for me!" Pooja told him cheerfully, and Raj smiled. "Sir, won't you come and say goodbye to everybody? I know we'll see you in four days, but still…"

"Of course I will," he replied, and Naina stepped forward out of the door. After locking it, he followed the two girls down to the front of KMA where all of his favourite cadets were waiting for him.

"Sir, for the last time, the KMA class of 2008 salutes you as your cadets." Huda announced proudly and all of the friends stood to attention, saluting Raj. "From now on we'll be saluting you as your fellow soldiers instead!"

"I have no words to tell you how proud I am of all of you." He told them, "You are all truly worthy and capable soldiers. I'm going to miss you all immensely, but of course we'll see each other in four days time before that."

The former cadets nodded in agreement, and after everybody had hugged each other and said goodbye to Raj and their other teachers such as Shalini, Suriji and Lolitaji, they all climbed into their cars and left the academy.

Pooja knew there was a reason for her friend's silence during the ride, although she was relieved that Naina looked a bit happier than she had in the hall earlier. She reached out to take Naina's hand, holding it and giving it a squeeze.

Naina smiled at Pooja, she knew that no matter what happened with her family, her friends would support her and Raj.

In four days time it would be the engagement and she would see him again.

Until then, Naina knew that they both had a lot of work to do.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

When Naina and Pooja arrived at Pooja's house, the first thing they did was go straight to Pooja's room where Naina told her everything that had happened. Pooja comforted Naina as she cried, trying to reassure her that everything would turn out alright in the end.

"I just wish your parents had been as easy to convince as mine were." Pooja said regretfully, "I wish there was some way I could help you like you helped me."

"If they're acting like this now… then how are they going to act once they know we love each other?" Naina asked sadly, not really wanting to know what the answer would be.

"Whatever happens Naina, you've got Rajveer Sir with you. You two are made for each other, don't let go of that." Pooja told her, and Naina nodded.

The next few days were filled with frantic preparations, although the engagement was to be held in Kanpur, there was still a lot that the bride's side had to do. Ali's family had sent an outfit for Pooja which she went absolutely crazy with joy over. However Pooja insisted that Naina needed a new outfit too, so the girls took the afternoon off to go shopping, finally buying Naina a beautiful choli lengha outfit as well. One day before the engagement they all set off for Kanpur, wanting to arrive a day early so that they could recover before the event.

When they arrived at the hotel they were reunited with Neelu amongst much hugging, the three girls were going to be sharing a room both that night and the next before they all headed home.

"The boys have gone to check on Ali and see if there's anything he needs them to do." Neelu informed them, "It's good you've arrived while they're gone, now we can all have a good proper gossip!"

Pooja laughed, "Why don't you start first, Neelu? What's really going on with you and Aalekh and when should we expect your engagement?"

Neelu shrugged, not looking bothered about it at all, "Aalekh and I are enjoying our lives, we're not ready to get engaged yet." She became more serious then, obviously considering the future, "But I am going to miss him once he leaves for his duty, we might be apart for months…"

Pooja and Naina gave her sympathetic looks, "We're all in the same position, Neelu." Pooja told her, "All of us will have only long distance connections with our Ranjhas for awhile."

"And now, Naina," Neelu said turning to her, "What's this about you and Major Rajveer I hear?"

Naina attempted to look innocent, "I have no idea what you're talking about," she teased Neelu, unable to hide a small smile.

"Oh come on, I was there that night at the promotion party when Huda made that comment!"

"Hasn't Aalekh told you anything?" Naina asked her.

"No, he said that it was your business and I'd have to ask you myself if I wanted to know." Neelu shrugged, "Before now there's never been an opportunity."

"Well alright then," Naina told her, and began to tell the story, Pooja occasionally adding comments to what Naina was saying in order to give Neelu a fuller picture of what happened.

"Wow, that really is romantic." Neelu said when the story was finished, "You have a very filmy love story."

"I just wish that it was a bit less filmy," Naina said, still feeling upset about her parents' rejection of Raj, "I could do with a bit less melodrama in my life."

It was evening by then and Huda, Yudi and Aalekh soon arrived back from Ali's, joining the rest of them for dinner. Most of Pooja's family's guests would be arriving the next morning so they were able to have some time by themselves, although nobody could ignore the fact that Pooja was beginning to look more and more nervous by the minute.

The next morning was a bright and sunny day, which was a relief to everybody. The engagement was going to be held in the evening, starting at 5pm. By the time the girls had woken up, bathed and dressed, the boys had already gone to Ali's. They took their time over breakfast, trying to convince Pooja, who was even more nervous than before, to eat just a little bit more.

They spent the rest of their morning quietly at the hotel, trying to distract Pooja by talking with her and playing card games. Naina was also getting more and more excited, not only for her friend's engagement but also because she would be seeing Raj again that night. If being apart for four days had been this hard, then what would being apart for months be like?

Finally after lunch it was time for the girls to leave for the preparations for their hair and makeup, from there they would be going straight to the hall where the engagement was to be held.

By the time they were finished, all three were happy with the results, with Pooja having regained some of her confidence. Naina found herself wondering whether Raj had arrived at the hall yet or not, since he had told her he would be going straight there when he arrived.

/

Raj had arrived at the party, and he was already in trouble.

"You can't wear that to Ali and Pooja's engagement," Huda told him, looking him up and down. Raj had turned up in jeans, a dress shirt and a leather jacket.

"I know I should be dressed more formally, Huda, but I just didn't have time to get anything on my way from Delhi." Raj replied.

"Well Sir, no problem!" Yudi told him, "Actually Naina had guessed that would happen and already gave us instructions on what to do!"

"Naina guessed… what instructions?" Raj asked curiously, "And, uh, is she here yet?"

Smirking at each other about his attempt at asking for Naina casually, Aalekh was the one to reply. "No Sir, she'll be coming with Pooja. Until then, you should get changed. If Naina sees you like this then you'll be in trouble."

Allowing the boys to lead him to a room to change, Raj couldn't help wondering what type of outfit Naina had gotten for him, and what she would be wearing. Whatever it was, he knew that she would look absolutely gorgeous. There was no chance of her looking anything but that.

Tonight was their last night together before he left for his new duty and she went back to her parents' house for the rest of her holidays.

He intended to make the absolute most of it.

/

Finally with only half an hour left until the beginning of the engagement, Pooja was ready, and the three girls could leave. Pooja's parents had sent a car for them, which they climbed into excitedly, although Pooja had started to look rather pale.

"Don't worry, Pooja." Naina told her, patting her on the back, "Everything is going to go well and you're looking absolutely gorgeous."

Pooja took a deep breath and nodded, then smiled brightly at the other two girls. The drive to the hall only took fifteen minutes, and Pooja's parents were waiting outside to meet them. As the three girls walked into the hall, everybody assembled turned to stare at them. As she walked Pooja to where Ali stood waiting, Naina searched the hall restlessly, looking for the face that she had been waiting to see for four days. She was disappointed when she didn't spot him immediately, but thought that he either must be on his way or in a different part of the hall.

Ali and Pooja had had eyes only for each other ever since she had entered the hall, and as she came and stood next to him, she smiled shyly. Ali was absolutely speechless, unable to believe how beautiful she was looking.

"See Pooja, you've put him straight onto silent mode." Naina had whispered to her, making Pooja giggle.

As soon as Pooja was seated beside Ali, Neelu walked over to join Aalekh, and Naina continued to search the hall for Raj. Leaning over to speak to Yudi she asked him, "Yudi, where's Raj? Has he arrived yet?"

"Yes he arrived about five minutes before you did, and just as you ordered we sent him to get changed." Yudi whispered back to her.

Naina grinned, Raj had sent her an outfit for the graduation ball, this time it had been her turn.

She was just about to reply when Yudi pointed to the stairs where Raj was hurrying down, clearly worried about being late. Moving away from the happy couple, Naina made her way to stand in front of the stairs, waiting for him to notice her.

The moment that Raj looked up and spotted Naina, he missed one of the steps, slipping part of the way down and only managing to save himself on the hand rail.

Smiling at his reaction, Naina walked over to meet him as he hurried down the rest of the steps. Raj quickly looked around to see whether anybody was watching them, and then grabbing Naina's hand, pulled her around the corner and outside onto the terrace. Luckily it was deserted, as most of the people were inside wishing Ali and Pooja and exclaiming about what a lovely pair they both made.

Pushing Naina gently against the wall, Raj raised one hand to lean on it, gazing deeply into her eyes.

"Have I ever told you that you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen?" he asked her.

Naina pretended to think about it for a moment, "Well, actually you have said something like that to me." She replied mischievously.

Raj's expression turned to one of surprise, "What? When? I don't remember telling you."

"It was when you came back after proving Navin innocent." Naina said, "You were delirious and I was trying to help you into bed when you told me."

"Oh," Raj couldn't remember it at all, "Well it doesn't hurt me to tell you again now does it? Naina, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." He looked her up and down with a gaze that made Naina blush, spreading heat through her body.

"Well you haven't seen Pooja yet, she's also looking quite beautiful tonight." Naina joked.

Raj gave Naina a look that said he clearly didn't think it was very funny. "If I knew you looked this good in lengha choli then I wouldn't have bought you a sari for the graduation ball…" he told her, his gaze coming on rest on her bare waist which made Naina blush even more.

"You're not looking too bad yourself." She told him, grabbing the ends of his scarf to pull him closer to her.

"Thanks," Raj replied, "How did you know I wouldn't have turned up in anything formal?"

"Lucky guess." Naina told him with a shrug, "I figured it was time that I bought you a gift as well."

"Well I think I love your gift… almost as much as I love you." Raj told her, leaning down further to kiss her when suddenly.

-cough- -cough-

Somebody in the background was clearing their throat loudly, and Raj turned away from Naina to look at the doorway with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Uh, really sorry guys." Yudi told them very self consciously, "But I thought you'd like to know that Brigadier Chandook has arrived."

"BC?" Raj exclaimed in shock, "What's he doing here?"

"Well Sir, I would take a guess that he's come to attend Ali and Pooja's engagement." Yudi told Raj, before vanishing quickly to go and find Shalini, realising that it probably wasn't a good idea to stick around any longer.

They had already known that Suriji and Lolitaji wouldn't be turning up, as Suriji was going to Bengal to ask Lolita's parents for her hand in marriage. They had both sent their best wishes for the engagement and promised to be there for the wedding. However they hadn't known whether Brigadier Chandook would actually turn up or not.

Raj cursed while Naina wasn't sure whether she should feel annoyed or amused. "So I guess this means that we'll both have to go solo for awhile at the engagement tonight?" She asked.

"Well, unless you want BC figuring out that we were actually seeing each other while you were at KMA."

"No way," Naina replied, "He could still decide to court martial you, or tell my parents…"

They parted reluctantly, and Raj allowed Naina to go back inside first, waiting for a few minutes before reentering the hall so that they wouldn't be too obvious. When he arrived back inside, he saw that Naina was already sitting with Pooja and Ali, talking to them both.

"There you are, Major Rajveer!" he heard Brigadier Chandook's booming voice from behind him.

"Sir, it's so good to see you here tonight!" Raj told him, secretly wishing that something had stopped him from turning up.

"Yes, I thought I should turn up to wish them well. I won't be able to stay for long though."

'Thank God', Raj thought, 'Then I'll be able to rejoin Naina'. Instead he said, "That's a shame, Sir, so shall we go and say congratulations to the happy couple?"

"Of course, Major! By the way, where's your date?"

"Uh, date, Sir?" Raj felt like he was still one of BC's cadets, getting in trouble for some prank. "I don't have a date tonight, Sir. You know how our job is… never any time to meet girls."

"You've said that rightly, Major." Brigadier Chandook laughed, and relieved, Raj followed him over to where Ali and Pooja were. Naina was still sitting with them, as were Yudi and Dr Shalini. Aalekh and Neelu had gone to check on the food arrangements and Huda had left to chase a particularly pretty party guest. Together, Yudi, Shalini and Naina had managed to relax Ali and Pooja by joking with them, and now the two of them were looking much less nervous and as if they were enjoying their engagement a lot more.

"Congratulations," Brigadier Chandook wished them, "I hope that your lives together will always be happy."

"Thank you, Sir. We're very honoured that you came to our engagement." Ali told him while Pooja nodded, and together they bent down to touch the Brigadier's feet while he blessed them.

"Lieutenant Ahluwalia and Lieutenant Sahni, it's good to see you both again so soon after graduation." Brigadier Chandook told them, "And you too of course, Dr Singhal."

"It's a pleasure to see you as well, Sir." Naina replied, "We're glad you could make it."

He walked away then to talk to Ali's father and Raj walked forward to congratulate Ali and Pooja.

"But definitely no touching my feet!" He joked, "You two look wonderful tonight. I know you're going to be happy together."

"Come and sit with us for awhile, Sir." Pooja invited him, indicating the seat next to Naina. Raj gladly sat down, happy not only to be able to sit next to Naina but also to be able to spend some more time with his favourite cadets on this special occasion.

They started chatting about the party arrangements and where they were all hoping to be deployed to. Pooja and Naina already knew where they were going of course, it was only the boys who hadn't received news yet. Raj informed them all then that he was about to be posted to Ladakh for awhile, something that he had already told Naina when he had found out.

"Well hopefully some of us will be posted with you, Sir." Yudi told him.

"I would like that too," Raj replied, "We'll just have to wait and see what headquarters decides for you all. With your performance at the academy, none of you should have any problems getting good postings."

Aalekh and Neelu came back then, reporting that everything was fine with the catering arrangements and greeting Raj. They were all still getting used to being less formal with him now that he wasn't their teacher.

Ending his conversation with Ali's father, Brigadier Chandook turned to see Raj sitting with his former cadets, talking and laughing. He reflected that Captain, now Major, Rajveer had always been a different type of army officer, willing to be more of a friend and a mentor to cadets than others would be.

Suddenly Brigadier Chandook saw Naina Singh Ahluwalia exchange a glance with Major Rajveer, smiles spreading over both of their faces as they looked at each other. It was then that Brigadier Chandook noticed that both of their outfits were in similar colours and that they were sitting rather close to each other. He began to wonder whether…

But seeing the happiness on both of their faces, Brigadier Chandook decided that he didn't want to know. If he didn't know then he didn't have to report anything. Resolutely, he turned away and found some other guests to speak to.

Soon it was time for the actual ceremony and the applause and whistles, especially from their friends, was almost deafening as Ali and Pooja slipped the rings onto each others' fingers before hugging each other.

They fed each other sweets before turning to feed their friends too. Raj had never seen either Ali or Pooja as happy as they both were today. While outsiders would see them as almost complete opposites, he knew that they complimented each other perfectly.

Naina and Neelu had just walked to the drinks table to fetch some soft drink when they overheard a conversation between two girls standing there.

"Have you seen the guy in the kurta pajama outfit with the blue scarf? The one who was sitting with Pooja and Ali before. He's soooooo cute, maybe Pooja could get us an introduction."

Naina wasn't sure whether she should feel jealous or proud that other girls had been checking out her boyfriend. Luckily before she could decide, Neelu stepped in.

"Sorry girls, but he's taken." She informed them with a grin, "And unless you want to challenge a Lieutenant in the Indian Army for him, you'd better back off." She said, indicating Naina with a hand.

The girls both looked very embarrassed and hurried away, while Naina and Neelu laughed, unable to hold it in.

They made their way back to where the others were, holding two drinks each. As Neelu handed a drink to Aalekh and Naina handed one to Raj, Huda looked offended.

"Oy, where's ours?" he asked, referring to himself and Yudi.

"Huda, how many hands do you think we have?" Neelu asked him, "Go and get your own drink, or go and find yourself a girl to get it for you."

Yudi laughed at the expression on Huda's face. "Come on Huda, let's go grab our own drinks. Shalini, would you like one too?"

"That would be wonderful Yudi."

Naina tried to hide her smile, noticing that they'd begun to call each other by their first names with no 'ma'am' or 'cadet' coming in between.

Noticing the smile, Raj winked at her, knowing what Naina was thinking. He was just glad it looked like Shalini was taking the advice he had given her on the day of the graduation ball.

Brigadier Chandook came up to them all then, and everybody stood to attention, unable to break old habits.

"Relax everybody," he told them, "I'm sorry to be leaving so early but I've got a lot of work in the morning. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening." They all said farewell to him and then watched as he left.

As soon as he was gone, Raj sighed with relief while Shalini looked at him amused.

"Come on Naina, let's go dance." He told her, and taking her hand, led her onto the slowly filling dance floor.

The rest of the friends considered the couple who were now happily dancing together, lost in each others eyes. As soon as Naina had graduated from KMA there had been a noticeable change in the way they behaved with each other, both were now far more affectionate in front of other people and far more relaxed.

It wasn't long until the rest of their friends joined them on the dance floor, and Naina was happy to see Yudi and Dr Shalini dancing together, although they remained at a friendly distance. Neelu and Aalekh of course danced together, and Huda had so many partners that he seemed to be with a different girl every time she saw him.

Even Ali and Pooja were eventually persuaded to get up and dance, although they did so slowly because of the heaviness of Pooja's outfit.

Raj would've been happy to sway with Naina in his arms all night long, but they eventually had to stop dancing as Naina felt that her feet were about to fall off. While they stood together, watching the rest of their friends still enjoying themselves, an official photographer for the event came and took their picture. Raj quickly paid him and made him write down the address that it should be sent to, of his new posting in Ladakh. Naina then paid him again and gave him Pooja's address to send it to, knowing exactly how her parents would react if such a photo turned up at home.

"At least that way I'll have something to remember tonight by," he told Naina, "Although I'm worried that if I have a photo of you on my desk, I might be too distracted to do any work."

"At least I've got a lot of photos of you," Naina told him, "The one good thing Pooja learnt from Major Nair was how to use a camera, I swear she never stopped taking photos throughout our last year at KMA."

"Ask her to send some to me, the more photos I have of you, the better." Raj said, and then holding Naina's hand carefully between both of his, he whispered, "Come outside with me."

"People will notice," Naina whispered back, "They'll wonder where we're going."

"Let them." Raj told her, "We're not doing anything wrong."

Naina nodded her agreement and then allowed him to lead her outside to the terrace, which was still completely deserted. Raj led Naina to a bench outside before sitting down beside her, holding both of her hands in his.

"I've got something to give you." He told her, and pulled a small jewellery box out of his pocket. Opening it, Naina saw a beautiful ring with sapphires in the shape of a flower. She stared at Raj, knowing that it would've been expensive. "Raj, this is…" 

"I know it's not much. I would've liked to get you a diamond ring, but I thought this was a little less obvious." He told her, "I thought of you when I saw it."

Taking the ring out of the box, he slipped it gently onto her finger, as Naina stared at it, amazed at the way it fit perfectly on her finger, and how beautiful it looked there.

"It's beautiful but you didn't need to buy it for me…" she told him, taking his hands in hers again, "Whether I wear your ring or not, I'm only yours."

"I know." Raj told her, happy about her reaction to the present, "But I still wanted you to have it. It's a promise, a promise about our future together."

Unable to help herself, Naina leaned forward to kiss him, cupping his cheek with one hand. Raj deepened the kiss, pulling Naina forward until she was so close to him, she was practically sitting in his lap. She combed her fingers through his hair, as Raj's kisses became even more fervent and eager, his hands holding her bare waist tightly, her dupatta slipping from her shoulder, falling into her lap. Naina didn't even notice, she was so absorbed in him, as Raj began to kiss her newly exposed neck, her shoulder, her…

They were disturbed by a gasp and both looked up to see a shocked engagement guest hurrying back inside. Naina wanted to call after the girl that they hadn't been doing anything, even though it was perfectly obvious exactly what they had been doing.

Naina knew she was blushing, and Raj looked almost as embarrassed as she felt. "Thank god it wasn't anybody we knew," she said, "I just hope they're not too close to either Ali or Pooja's families."

"We weren't doing anything wrong." Raj told her, even though she could clearly make out a blush on his face in the dark. "It might have been the wrong place though…"

"I think we should go back inside," Naina told him, "If we're lucky, then maybe that girl didn't see our faces."

Feeling slightly paranoid, instead of coming back in the door from the terrace, they circled the building and came in the front door instead. Quite a few of the party guests had left by now, and Naina noticed in relief that the girl who had disturbed them was nowhere in sight. They walked back to the rest of their friends, holding hands. Everybody was now sitting around the couch that had been set up for Ali and Pooja.

While the friends smirked at each other, nobody made any comment about the fact that Raj's hair seemed to have been ruffled out of its original neat style or that Naina's makeup seemed to be slightly smudged.

When they eventually spotted it, none of them commented on the ring on Naina's finger either. While Naina might be their friend, until four days ago, Raj had still been their teacher and they weren't quite prepared to start teasing him yet.

"So what's the plan now that the party is nearly over?" Yudi asked.

"I suppose we all go back to our hotel and sleep, bro." Neelu replied, "It's been a long day."

"No way!" Huda replied, "This is going to be our last night together as a group, we're all going back to the hotel, and that includes you Ali, and we're going to stay awake until dawn."

Everybody cheered at this, and as soon as the last of the guests had left, Ali asked his parents for permission to join them at the hotel which was quickly given. They all took Raj's jeep, and were soon back at the hotel in the girls' room, which was a bit nicer and more spacious than the boys'.

Others might have found it strange that newly graduated cadets could be so comfortable around their ex-teachers, but they had been so used to confiding in Raj and Dr Shalini ever since they arrived at KMA that it seemed natural to include them in all the plans. Especially because of Raj's status as Naina's boyfriend and Shalini's status as… well, whatever it was that was between her and Yudi. Rather than sitting on the beds they sat around on the floor, leaning on pillows they had taken from all of their rooms. Naina leaned against Raj instead, enjoying the feeling of his warm and sturdy chest behind her back.

Raj was happy that they would all have one final night together, but he was also slightly disappointed that it meant he wouldn't have any more time alone with Naina that night. He became positively distracted as soon as she began to unpin her hair from the style it was in, letting down tress after tress. It was probably best that they weren't going to be left alone, otherwise he would break the promises he had made to himself…

The rest of the evening was passed telling stories, joking and singing. Raj and Shalini even told them stories from their own academy days, most of the cadets were amazed to find out how much mischief Raj and Navin had gotten up to. Naina had heard most of these stories already but enjoyed listening to them again, hearing the happiness in Raj's voice as he remembered his best friend.

Finally around 3am everybody was too exhausted to keep their eyes open any longer and they went their separate ways to their rooms.

They would all be leaving at different times in the morning. Naina's bus left at 9am, Huda and Aalekh's left at 12. Neelu and Yudi would be driving themselves back to Ambala along with Shalini so they could leave whenever they wished. Pooja and her family were going to be staying back in Kanpur with Ali's family, so neither of them needed to worry about getting up early.

It was decided that it would be better for everybody to say goodbye right then rather than trying to find each other again in the morning. They all hugged each other tearfully, even Huda becoming emotional. Aalekh hugged Naina especially hard, knowing that he was going to miss her friendship and guidance wherever it was that he ended up. He was going to spending the last half of the holidays with Yudi and Neelu, so his goodbye with them was less emotional.

When Naina looked at Raj questioningly, he only reached out a hand to touch her face. "I'll see you in the morning." He told her, and she looked surprised. "I'll take you to the bus station and then drive back to Delhi." He explained, "My flight to Ladakh leaves in the evening from there."

Naina nodded, relieved that they wouldn't officially be parting for at least a few more hours.

Despite the lack of sleep, she woke the next morning at 7am, bathed and got ready. She woke up Pooja and Neelu and hugged them goodbye. She would be seeing Pooja in a month in Delhi anyway and Neelu had told them that she was thinking of transferring to a college in Delhi to be with them now that Yudi and Aalekh would no longer be in Ambala.

Naina had just stepped into the corridor with her bag when Raj appeared around the corner, obviously coming to find her.

They had breakfast together, both trying to forget the fact that it was the last time they would see each other for months. When they had finished, he drove her to the bus station, this time in silence as they each contemplated what their future would bring. Naina already had her ticket so the only thing left to do was wait, and so they sat down at a table to wait for Naina's bus to be called. They held hands as they waited, Raj's thumb stroking across her knuckles in calming motions.

It was only when the boarding call for her bus was issued that Naina's face crumpled, and she struggled not to cry. Raj quickly took her in his arms, hugging her fiercely and making soothing noises.

"It's only temporary, Naina." He told her, "Just concentrate on your studies and the time will pass quickly. We'll write to each other, and call too. And I'll definitely come to visit you the moment I have leave."

"I almost forgot in the excitement of the engagement," Naina told him, "I have a mobile now. Pooja gave it to me as a graduation present." She quickly told him the number, and Raj keyed it into his own mobile right away, before checking that the number she had for him was correct.

"I'll miss you so much." He told her, hugging her one last time before she got on the bus, "I'll be counting the days until I can see you again."

"Just stay safe for me." Naina told him, "Anytime there's any type of attack up there try and let me know that you're okay."

Raj promised her that he would, before crushing her to him one more time. He buried his face in her neck, trying to memorise the feel of her, the smell of her. This was all he would have to remember her by until he saw her again.

When Naina got onto the bus she gazed out the window until Raj was out of sight, neither of them lowering their hand until they could no longer see the other.

For the next month she would be with her family, and have to avoid them finding out anything about what was between her and Raj. Taking her ring off, she hung it on the chain around her neck before putting it under her top. It would lie there next to her heart, reminding her of the man who had given it to her.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

The next three weeks passed slowly for Naina, she constantly missed both Raj and her friends. Her only solace was that she would be seeing Pooja again very soon, and possibly Neelu as well. Neelu had made a definite decision to transfer her college to Delhi and was in the process of doing so. She reasoned that this way she could get away from her parents' nagging, and that when Aalekh and Yudi got leave, they could spend it with the three girls in the same place without needing to go back and forth between Delhi and Ambala.

Naina didn't get to speak to Raj very often as she could only do so when there wasn't a chance of her parents overhearing them. She would coordinate it with him by sms, coming up with a time when she would have an excuse to be out of the house. Their conversations might have been short but both could hear the longing and the warmth in each others' voices. While she couldn't take the risk of receiving letters from him yet, she wrote to him at least once a week.

Naina couldn't wait to begin medical training, at least there she would be able to write and receive letters from him and talk to him more often. She tried to enjoy the short time that she had left with her parents, but she was still upset about their treatment of Raj. Naina understood why they felt the way they did, and she had finally realised that she may never be able to change their opinion of him. It scared Naina that she might have to choose between Raj and her parents. She already knew what her choice would be, but she prayed that the day never came when she had to make it.

The only thing that comforted her was the presence of the ring on the chain around her neck. She couldn't wait for the day when she would leave the house and be able to wear it upon her finger once again.

Naina had been in contact with the rest of her friends too, who by now had all found out where they were going to be posted. Huda and Ali were going to be posted to Jaisalmer, close to the border. Ali was very proud about this, but Huda… he couldn't stop complaining about how much sand there would be and what the desert would do to his good looks.

Aalekh and Yudi were going to be joining Major Rajveer, something they were both overjoyed about. Yudi could barely stop gushing about it on the phone to Naina until Aalekh grabbed the phone off him when he couldn't get him to shut up.

"Don't worry, Naina. We'll look after the Major for you." Aalekh had told her, and Naina knew that he meant it. Aalekh and Yudi would never let anything happen to Raj, just as he wouldn't let anything happen to them. She was at least relieved that they would all be together there, as she knew it was a dangerous posting. She wished that she could be out there with them, but knew that becoming a military doctor was a good option. She would just have to wait a few more years until she was in the field.

Finally two days before her classes was due to start, Naina's parents dropped her to Delhi so that she could get settled in early. She hugged them goodbye tearfully; no matter how they felt about Raj, they were still her parents and she knew she would miss them.

Rather than stay in a hostel, it had been decided that Naina and Pooja would stay with Neelu in the Sahni's apartment in Delhi. As she approached the door to the apartment she could already hear cheerful chatter inside and knew that she was the last to arrive.

Neelu opened the door when she knocked and practically dragged Naina inside as Pooja grabbed her bags.

"Oy missed call, we've been waiting for you since morning!" Pooja said excitedly, not allowing Naina to reply before she hugged her. "Our talk time has been incomplete without you!"

Naina laughed and hugged her back, then hugged Neelu.

"What time did you arrive?" she asked them.

"Well I arrived last night, then Pooja got here at about 11am." Neelu told her. "We were expecting you much earlier!"

"Sorry baba!" Naina told her, "We stopped for lunch on the way, my parents wanted to spend a little more time with me until I left them."

The three girls quickly began unpacking and setting up their apartment, chatting away as they did.

When the apartment was more or less set up, Naina reached up to the chain around her neck, undid it and slipped the ring onto her finger. It felt good to be wearing it properly again, reminding her that she belonged to somebody and that he belonged to her.

Unable to control her curiosity anymore now that they were alone with Naina, Pooja finally decided that it was the time to ask.

"What's this new connection, Naina?" she asked, picking up her friend's hand to look at the ring as Neelu oooed and ahhed "Have you upgraded your old plan?"

Naina nodded with a grin blushing, as the other two girls squealed, hugging her excitedly.

"He gave it to me on the night of your engagement, Pooja." Naina told them, "Nothing is official, it's more of a promise for the future."

Pooja became all dreamy at this while Neelu sighed, "Well now I'm the only one of us girls who doesn't have a ring." She said, trying to make a joke of it but still sounding a little disappointed.

"Don't worry, Neelu." Naina told her confidently, "I know how much Aalekh loves you, I'm sure he would buy you a ring if he could afford to."

"I know," Neelu replied, "And I don't need expensive gifts from him to know how much he loves me. I'm a bit afraid of asking him for a commitment though, he's such a carefree guy that I don't know if he wants to get married or not."

"Should I tell you a secret?" Naina asked Neelu, "I think that Aalekh's biggest desire is to have a family to call his own. It's what he's always wanted."

Pooja nodded at this, "We're the closest that Aalekh has to family. Don't worry Neelu, I think he just wants to prove himself before he asks you."

Reassured, Neelu became happy again. The girls spent the rest of the afternoon grocery shopping and gossiping. All of them were starting at their classes on Monday, and until then they had a million things to do.

Waiting until 6pm when she'd arranged to call, Naina dialled a now familiar number, trying to calm her heart beat as she waited for him to pick up the phone.

/

Raj knew who it would be as soon as the phone rang, and picked it up as soon as possible.

"So you've reached Delhi?" he asked, his smile spilling over into his voice.

"And what would you have done if it wasn't me?" Naina asked him teasingly.

"I knew it would be you." Raj told her, not feeling the need to explain how. "So have you settled in yet?"

"Well enough," Naina replied, "I was the last one to arrive so Pooja and Neelu had already set up their things before I reached here, and there wasn't much to do."

"I should've given you a key for my apartment in Delhi," Raj told her, "I can't believe I didn't think of it before."

"You can give me one when you come to visit." Naina replied, and it was impossible for Raj not to notice the hope and longing in her voice.

"I'm afraid that will be a few months away," he told her regretfully, "It's impossible for me to get leave any sooner."

"I understand," Naina reassured him, and he knew she was disappointed but trying to hide it. "I should tell you now that both Pooja and Neelu say hi before I forget and they kill me," Raj chuckled, imagining the two girls threatening her, "Would you like to talk to them?" Naina asked.

"Sure," Raj says, "Just make sure they give the phone back to you when they're finished."

Raj had a brief chat to both Pooja and Neelu. He asked Pooja if she could send some of the photos she had taken of everybody, particularly as many of Naina as possible. Pooja giggled at this.

"Hai! So cute!" she told him, "How could I ever refuse my Veer photographs of his Zaara?"

Raj couldn't believe that even here alone in his room he was blushing at her comments.

He talked to Neelu next, who asked him to look after 'her boys'. Raj promised her that both Yudi and Aalekh would be fine with him and that he wouldn't let anything happen to them. Finally the phone was passed back to Naina again and they both sat quietly on their own ends, neither wanting to say goodbye.

"I miss you." Raj told her softly.

"I miss you too." Naina's voice was as sweet as honey to his ears. "Did you get my latest letter yet? I sent it about three days ago."

"Not yet." Raj tells her, "You know how slow the postal service is here. Hopefully it will arrive within the next few days. This time you'll get one in return."

"I'll look forward to it." Naina tells him, happy at his promise, "I'll call you again after my first day at college."

"I'll be waiting until then."

"I love you." Naina told him softly, and Raj wondered whether she had any idea what the effect of those three words on him really was. "Stay safe and say hi to Aalekh and Yudi for me when they arrive."

"I will." Raj promised her, "Enjoy your first day at college. I love you."

They both hung up, neither of them wanting to say the word goodbye.

Raj leaned back on his bed with a smile, he couldn't wait to receive Naina's latest letter or the photos that Pooja had promised to send. He looked across to the photo on his bedside table, the only one that he had so far. Taken on the night of Ali and Pooja's engagement, Naina and he were both smiling into the camera, his arm around her shoulders.

He was attempting to learn to live without her and the only thing that allowed him to do so was that he knew it was only temporary.

/

Two days later, Yudi and Aalekh arrived in the afternoon along with the newest batch of soldiers to join the battalion. They were both tired from the journey but while their comrades immediately headed for some food and rest, both Yudi and Aalekh were determined to see Raj before they did anything else. Making their way to the main office, they asked where his quarters were.

As soon as they'd found the room they knocked on the door and waited expectantly, both excited to see their old teacher.

"Come in!" Raj called from inside and Yudi swung the door open.

"Lieutenants Yaduvansh Sahni and Aalekh Sharma reporting for duty, Sir!" he announced.

"Yudi! Aalekh! It's wonderful to see both of you!" Raj's face lit up with a smile as he moved forwards to hug both of them. "How were your holidays?"

"Fine, Sir." Aalekh told him, "But now we're ready to join our duty."

"Excellent, I knew you would be." Raj said, patting him on the back, "You both must be tired. How about if I have some food sent here and we'll have a chat over dinner then you can both have an early night."

The boys both agreed that sounded like a good plan. They spent the next hour eating and catching up. Raj warned them that although they were his favourite cadets they wouldn't receive any preferential treatment, they would have to work just as hard as everybody else.

Neither Yudi nor Aalekh were disappointed by this, both of them wanted to prove themselves in the army based upon their own merits. After all, when Raj was their favourite teacher how could they not have learned his values for themselves.

Saying goodnight, they left for their own quarters. From now on they were soldiers officially on duty for their country. They knew they would need some rest if they were going to fulfil those duties properly.

/

The next few months passed quickly as everybody adjusted to their new duties and routines. The friends remained in contact with each other through calls, emails and letters, communicating at least once a week, although those who were in love talked far more frequently.

Pooja and Naina didn't have much time for anything else once their course started, medical studies were difficult and they had to study hard to keep up with the work. Ali was doing fine in Jaisalmer although he missed Pooja but Huda couldn't stop complaining. He was especially annoyed that Rajasthani girls were not as easy to flirt with as Punjabi girls and that he was much more likely to get slapped.

On a sunny afternoon, Yudi and Aalekh were both enjoying some downtime and had decided to write their letters for the week.

Yudi had already begun on his first one while Aalekh lazed around in the sun. "Who are you writing to?" Aalekh asked him.

"Shalini." Yudi replied without any trace of embarrassment. Aalekh hid a smile but didn't ask Yudi anything else, he thought it was best to let the two of them sort things out for themselves.

Instead Aalekh prepared to write his own letters, pulling out two photos from his chest pocket that always remained there. They were of the two most important people in his life, Neelu and Naina.

Placing them in front of him, he tried to decide who he would write to first. He was just about to begin a letter to Neelu when one of their fellow Lieutenants called Rakesh came and joined them.

"Now you're both reminding me that I should be writing letters." He sighed, then spotting the photos in front of Aalekh, he picked them up. "Wow, these girls are hot!" he commented, "You're too much, Aalekh, writing love letters to not only one girl but two."

Aalekh was giving Rakesh a look that clearly said 'give me my photos back right now or you'll regret it' and was about to say exactly that when Rakesh started speaking again.

"This girl looks familiar." He said, examining the photo of Naina with a confused expression, "I know I've seen her somewhere before… hang on, that's right, the Major has a picture of her in his office!" Rakesh looked at Aalekh accusingly, "What are you doing with a picture of Major Rajveer's girlfriend? I mean I know she's hot but…"

"Shut your mouth before you say something that makes me hit you." Aalekh warned him. "And if you'd really like to know then SHE," he pointed to Naina's photo, "Is my family."

Rakesh's mouth opened in astonishment as he tried to work out how the very refined Major Rajveer had ended up going out with a tapori guy's relative.

"Sorry yaar," he said sheepishly and put the photo down quickly. "I didn't realise. What about this girl then?" he pointed at Neelu's photo.

"Woah, dude." Yudi cut in. "She is MY sister."

Rakesh suddenly decided that it would be best for him to go and write his own letters now, preferably as far away from these two as possible before he said something else to offend them and got himself beaten up.

Yudi sighed melodramatically. "It's such a burden having a beautiful sister, Aalekh. I'm just glad that Naina and Neelu have both found nice guys to settle down with so we don't have to worry so much."

Aalekh couldn't help smiling, touched by Yudi's approval of him as Neelu's partner.

"You said it correctly, Nautanki." Aalekh told Yudi. "No matter what happens, I'll do my duty to look after her."

It was his job to make sure that Naina was happy and he would do it. He would never allow anyone to come between Naina and Raj, even if it was her own parents.

That was Aalekh's promise.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

Naina had been in a state of excitement for the past few weeks, ever since she had heard the news.

Finally, after six long months, Raj had been given leave.

She was disappointed that Aalekh and Yudi wouldn't be coming along with him, but at least this way she didn't have to decide who she would be spending her time with. He would be arriving on Friday evening to spend the weekend before flying back on Monday morning. Naina was disappointed that it was for such a short time, but she knew he couldn't afford to be away from his soldiers for long. And Raj had promised that next time he would get leave after another three months rather than six.

Meanwhile, Naina had been driving Pooja and Neelu absolutely crazy with her behaviour. She was constantly fixing up things around the house, moving them to different places and cleaning things that weren't even dirty. A day before he was due to arrive, Pooja sighed in frustration as Naina adjusted a vase on the table for the hundredth time that week.

"Naina, just give it a rest!" Pooja had to stop herself from yelling at her friend, "I know you're excited about your Veer coming, but really and truly, there's no need to trouble that vase so much before he does!"

Casting one last anxious look at the vase, Naina left it alone and came to sit on the couch beside Pooja and Neelu.

"I'm sorry guys," she told them, "I know I've been a pain to live with for the last week, but I just want everything to be perfect when he arrives."

"Naina, trust me," Neelu said to her in a reassuring tone, "The moment he arrives he'll be so busy looking at you that he won't have time to notice our house at all."

Naina blushed at this, her heartbeats quickened just thinking about him, a strange warmth spread through her body when she imagined seeing him again, her whole skin tingled at the thought of his touch. She was so on edge that she could barely sit still. Whenever she tried to sit down she would get up again, needing to find something else to do to keep herself busy. She wondered if Raj was this affected as well, whether he was just as eager to see her, just as distracted from his work.

She didn't know how right she was, and that hundreds of miles away in Ladakh, Raj lay sleepless in his bed, unable to get her thoughts out of his head.

/

Class ended at 3pm and Naina had been planning to rush home to start cooking for that evening, since Raj was expected to arrive at about 5pm. He was going to have dinner with all of them, since Neelu and Pooja wanted to see him as well. Naina knew that they would have the rest of the weekend to themselves, so she didn't mind sharing him with her friends for one evening.

All day long she had barely managed to concentrate on her studies, the only reason she didn't give up was because she knew Raj would've been disappointed with her if she did. As soon as the bell struck three and the class was dismissed, Naina rushed outside, barely waiting for Pooja she was so excited. It was only when she had run down the steps of her college to the pavement outside that she skidded to a stop, her heart hammering against her chest, barely able to believe the sight in front of her.

There, looking as handsome as ever, and wearing his dress uniform, stood Raj, leaning against the hood of a jeep. Naina's breath caught in her throat, she lost all power of speech and stood frozen as she stared at him, so solid and real in front of her. She had waited for this moment for six months now, had imagined it, prayed for it, but nothing could have really prepared her for the sudden rush of happiness when she finally saw him face to face.

It was then that Raj looked up from examining his watch, and the smile that spread over his face was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.

Unable to control herself any longer, Naina ran towards him, throwing her arms around him with such force that Raj was forced to step back slightly, in order to brace himself. Grabbing Naina around the waist while her arms were around his neck, he picked her up and swung her around in the air, crushing her tightly to himself. Naina didn't care about the fact that they were on a public footpath and that half of her fellow students and some of the teachers as well had stopped to watch what was going on. All she cared about was that Raj was in front of her, real and not a dream. She wanted to kiss him right then, and would've too if some of the naughtier girls in her class hadn't broken into cries of 'oooooohhhhh', always ready to tease somebody.

Naina blushed as Raj put her down, running his hand through his hair embarrassedly.

"Oy, missed calls, put yourselves on silent mode!" Pooja lectured them angrily, "My Zaara hasn't seen her Veer for six months, let them have their personal talk time!"

Shrugging, the girls from the class quickly moved off, having learnt quite early on that it wasn't a good idea to mess with Pooja.

Although he had now put her down, Raj kept a tight grip on Naina's hand, almost as if to reassure himself that she really was there.

"You're early," she told him, "We thought you would arrive at five."

"I managed to get an earlier flight," Raj replied, "I thought I would surprise you by turning up to meet you."

All Naina could do was gaze at him, drinking him up with her eyes. She was broken out of her daze by Pooja's small cough in the background.

"Naina, I think I'm going to go to the library to do some extra study." She announced, "Why don't you take Rajveer Sir home now and I'll be there around five?"

Naina looked at her friend gratefully, knowing that Pooja was just trying to give them some time alone together.

"Are you sure?" Raj asked her, looking a little uncomfortable and embarrassed. As much as he wanted the time alone with Naina, he felt bad about turning Pooja out of her own home.

"Yes I am," Pooja said, trying to hide a smile, "I need as much study time as I can get, these books are so difficult." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and headed back to the library.

Reluctantly letting go of Naina's hand, Raj motioned for her to get into the jeep. Both of them had so many things to say to each other that they had no idea at all where to begin. The silence was a comfortable one, but there was a type of tension in the air, both of them aware of the fact that they were about to be alone together for the first time in months.

Naina gave Raj directions to reach their apartment, which thankfully wasn't too far away from the college, since the amount of time he spent looking at her rather than at the road was sure to cause an accident.

As soon as Naina opened the door and let him inside, she began explaining nervously that she hoped he liked the place and that she hadn't been able to clean it properly yet since she had thought that he was coming at five.

But Neelu had been right, Raj wasn't interested in looking at the apartment, the only thing he seemed to be interested in looking at was Naina. Naina found herself blushing under the intensity of his gaze, the longing and the desire in it.

As Raj took both of her hands in his, slowly turning them over, running his thumbs over her palms in small patterns, Naina shivered.

"I missed you." Naina whispered to him, barely trusting herself to speak. It was all the invitation Raj needed to finally lean down and kiss her. He kissed her as if he had been starving for her for months, waiting for this one moment when they could be together again. As Raj kissed her, he tangled his hands in her hair, bringing her face even closer to his than Naina would have thought possible. Stepping back slightly he leaned his forehead against hers, his arms on her shoulders.

"I missed you too." Raj whispered, causing Naina to giggle slightly.

"I can see that." She told him, and he smiled at her in a way that would've melted her heart if it hadn't happened long ago.

Raj leaned forward to kiss her again, only to have Naina hold up a hand to stop him.

"What?" he asked her confused, "Too fast?"

"No, not at all." Naina told him reassuringly, "But… the door."

Raj looked across to where she was gesturing to see that in his haste to kiss her, he hadn't even let her close the door on the way in. Laughing, with one hand he reached out to close it, turning the lock as he did so.

"Better?" he asked her.

"Much better." Naina told him, "You know, the neighbours…"

"Yes, we don't want Mr and Mrs Sahni getting calls about what their tenant is doing in their apartment." Raj joked.

"And what am I doing in their apartment?" Naina asked him somewhat flirtatiously, "I don't think that we've done anything yet that the neighbours could complain about."

"Well we can change that very easily." Raj informed her, and reaching down, he scooped her up into his arms, and carrying her down the hall, headed for the rooms there. Stopping in front of one door, he looked at Naina questioningly.

"No, that's Neelu's room." She told him, "Mine is the one on the right."

Swinging her around, he opened the door to the room with one hand, before shutting it with one foot while they were inside. Raj placed Naina on the bed gently and then sat down beside her, examining the room for the first time. There was very little furniture besides a bed, dresser and wardrobe. The most prominent thing in the room were the photos that Naina had everywhere. Some of her brother, some of her and her batchmates and friends, some of her and Raj, and some of Raj by himself. Raj smiled, thinking of his own room in Ladakh and the number of photos that he had displayed there.

Naina was now sitting cross legged on the bed beside him, and he reached out to touch her cheek as she leaned into his touch.

"I really, really missed you." He told her, unable to express properly exactly how much he had longed for her while they'd been apart. "All of the letters and phone calls still couldn't make up for having you with me."

"I know," Naina replied, taking his other hand in hers. "I crave just to hear your voice on the phone. When you send me a new picture then I'll spend hours looking at it."

"I know it's hard," he told her, his hand now on one of her crossed legs, "But it's not forever, when you graduate we'll get married, and be able to be posted together."

Naina nodded, not trusting herself to look at him, she focused on the hand that was on her leg instead. Finally able to find her voice, she whispered the thought that had been in her head for the last six months.

"Do we really have to wait until I finish my studies to get married?" she asked him, still not looking up.

If she had had the courage to look at him then she would've seen the look of pleasant surprise on Raj's face, and the smile that was slowly spreading across it.

"I mean, if we got married now, then you would be eligible for leave more often," Naina explained, "We wouldn't have to wait to see each other for so long, and…" she stopped, unable to finish the sentence as a blush came to her face.

"Naina, look at me" Raj told her, tilting her chin up with one hand, meeting Naina's eyes, he told her very sweetly, "Naina if that's what you really want, then we'll get married tomorrow. I just thought that since your parents…"

"I don't know if they're ever going to agree." Naina told him sadly, "I don't want to waste my whole life waiting for their consent. I want you."

The look on Raj's face changed, his desire for her very easily seen. "Naina," he said her name softly, moving closer to her on the bed. "I have all these good intentions and then whenever I see you, they just melt away."

Naina took a very deep breath before saying her next sentence. "When did I ever tell you that you needed to have good intentions?" She asked him.

Raj's eyebrows raised at this, at the unspoken permission in her sentence. He moved even closer so that the distance between them was now mere centimetres, his leg brushing hers.

"Naina, I don't know if this is a good idea," he whispered, "You know it's not the right time."

"Then when will it be the right time?" she asked him, "I'm not saying that we should… but there's nothing to stop us, and…"

She was unable to complete her sentence because Raj leaned forward over the short distance between them, pressing his lips to hers hungrily. The fervour of his kiss almost took Naina's breath away, as his hands roamed up her back, pressing her to him even more tightly.

Suddenly he broke away from her, breathing hard and barely able to speak. Loosening the cravat around his neck, he pulled it off before turning back to Naina.

"Naina, you had better be sure about this, or else stop me now." He told her, with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"You don't have to be so good all the time." Naina told him. "Sometimes you should think about what you want too."

"I want you." He told her quite simply, "And only you, but Naina…"

He couldn't finish his sentence because placing her hands around his neck, Naina brought his face forward again to meet hers, kissing him with such sweetness that he thought he could quite gladly die there and now, without any regrets.

Lowering himself down so that he was now lying beside her, Raj ran his hand down Naina's side and onto her leg, gripping it through the stockings she wore under her uniform, as he kissed her neck. Reaching up, Naina began to undo the buttons on his shirt, fumbling slightly due to her rush and nervousness. Trying to help her, Raj's hand just ended in the way and they both started laughing nervously. Finally his shirt was undone, and Raj shrugged it off in haste, throwing it somewhere behind him without bothering to check where it landed. He kissed Naina again, almost losing all remaining control as she bit his bottom lip in her passion. She tugged his singlet out from where it was tucked in his pants, trying to get it off him and failing until Raj raised his arms to help her. The singlet joined the shirt somewhere on the bedroom floor.

Naina placed her hands upon his bare chest shyly for the first time, loving the feel of his hard muscles underneath her hands. Raj leaned into her touch, while he kissed her jaw, her neck, her shoulder, pushing the material of her shirt lower so that he could reach more of her skin.

"Don't you dare rip my uniform." Naina warned him jokingly, "I don't want to have to explain why it had to be replaced."

"Then help me get it off you." He told her, completely serious, "Or I'm not going to be responsible for what happens to it."

Raising her back off the bed slightly so that he could untuck her shirt, Naina shivered as Raj leaned down to kiss the soft skin on her waist that was now exposed. He was fumbling with one of the buttons on her shirt when the sound of the front door opening disturbed them both.

"Hey Naina, I hope I'm not too late to help you with the cooking!" Neelu called out as she entered the house. Both Naina and Raj froze where they were, staring at each other with horrified expressions. They knew it was only a matter of time before she would come looking for Naina in her room, and when she opened the door…

Which she did right at that moment. "You know, it was such a busy day at college today, but I was thinking that…"

She stopped as she suddenly noticed the scene in front of her, Raj half undressed and practically on top of Naina, Naina's flushed face and clothes all askew. It was perfectly obvious what she's just walked in on.

"Oh shit." She exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, I should've knocked, I just thought that he wasn't coming until five, and now…" she tried for a more normal tone of voice, almost as embarrassed as the both of them are. "So uh, how are you Sir?"

"Neelu you were never my cadet, you don't need to call me Sir." Raj told her with a sigh, sitting up straight and disentangling himself from Naina. He looked around the room, trying to work out where his clothes had gone. Finally spotting his singlet he grabbed it and put it on as quickly as possible.

"I'll just uh, go." Neelu's voice was high pitched as she turned around quickly, "I just remembered that there's something really important I have to do at college, and…"

"You don't need to go, Neelu." Raj told her, "We'll just uh, tidy up a little bit and then…"

"Right," Neelu replied, still looking very embarrassed at having disturbed them. "I'll just... go and begin preparing dinner." And then she practically ran from the room.

Naina looked at Raj with an expression that was half apology and half regret.

Raj sighed, "It's a sign, I know it." He told her, "It's telling me that I shouldn't be trying to do anything with you until after marriage."

"No," Naina told him, "It's just bad luck, we should've realized that Neelu would be coming home from college."

"In that case, then next time I'll be taking you to my apartment instead." Raj commented, his voice full of promise.

Naina quickly adjusted her clothing and ran her hands through her hair to straighten it, then glancing back at Raj who was still buttoning up his shirt, she left the room to find Neelu sitting on the couch, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm so sorry, Naina." Neelu told her, sounding as if she truly meant it. "If I had known then I would never have…." 

"It's okay, Neelu." Naina reassured her, "It was our fault for not realizing that you might be coming home." Picking up her phone from the bag she had dropped on the sofa earlier, Naina sent a message to Pooja telling her that she could come home now. When Pooja walked in the door fifteen minutes later it was to find Naina and Neelu both in the kitchen working on dinner, and Raj in the lounge room, reading a magazine, a somewhat awkward expression on his face.

Walking into the kitchen, she looked Neelu up and down, then pulled her aside, taking her into her bedroom. "Oy, unwanted caller. Didn't you get my message not to come home?"

"I left my phone at home by accident today." Neelu replied sheepishly, "I swear of all the days…"

"You didn't disturb them did you?" Pooja asked, and at the guilty expression on Neelu's face she exclaimed, "You did, didn't you? I can't believe this!"

"Trust me, I would've preferred not to." Neelu assured her, "It was incredibly embarrassing, and I don't think I'm going to be able to look Rajveer in the eyes ever again."

"I can't believe you!" Pooja said, still very annoyed, "How would you like it if somebody disturbed your talktime with Aalekh?"

"Well at least we've had some talktime, whereas these poor things…" Neelu shook her head, "I really do feel bad about it. Do you think we should leave them alone?"

"No, that would probably just make them more embarrassed." Pooja replied, "We'll just have to act normal and then give them some time alone together tomorrow."

"Don't worry, Pooja, I promise that when Ali comes to visit I'll make sure that I don't come home for the whole day." Neelu said sincerely.

Pooja giggled at that, "Ali is such a good boy, I don't think he's got any type of intentions like that before marriage. You probably wouldn't be disturbing us at all."

Neelu suddenly got a mischievous look on her face, "Well that may be true, but when Aalekh comes to visit, I'm warning you now…"

"Bas, bas! I don't want to know!" Pooja said, putting her hands over her ears, "What you and Aalekh do together is your own business, I'll be staying well away from the house!"

Laughing, the two girls left the room to rejoin Naina in the kitchen, finding that Raj had moved from the couch and was now perched on a bench, watching her cook.

"I wanted to help," he explained, "But she won't let me." Neither Pooja nor Neelu could miss the looks of adoration and affection that Raj was sending in Naina's direction. Evidently Naina had noticed it too, by the way she had started blushing again.

From then on it was more relaxed as Raj seemed determined to put the earlier embarrassment behind him and enjoy his time here in Delhi. They joked and chatted while the cooking was done, Raj happily telling them about how well both Aalekh and Yudi were doing and how they would both be coming for a visit in three weeks time.

While Aalekh would be coming straight there, Yudi would be stopping off in Ambala first to see his parents, and, although nobody said it, everybody guessed, to visit Shalini.

They ate their dinner while still chatting about all of their friends, and what had been going on since they had last seen each other. Raj was able to tell them a lot more about the situation at the border than he could've in calls or letters. Luckily it was quiet at the moment, with no trouble expected in the near future, but they still needed to be alert.

It was quite late by the time they finished dinner, and after much insistence, Raj was allowed to help them wash up. It was then with some reluctance that Raj announced he should head back to his own apartment and that he would see them in the morning.

"You don't have to go, you know." Naina told him hopefully, "You've got your bag in the car, you could always stay the night here."

"Yes Sir, you could sleep on the couch!" Pooja told him helpfully, knowing how important it was to Naina to spend as much time with him as possible.

"You could even sleep in the bedroom, we wouldn't mind." Neelu announced, before suddenly realizing exactly how embarrassing that statement was when Pooja kicked her in the leg.

"Thanks guys, but I had better go." Raj told them, with one last look of regret at Naina, "I don't want to start your neighbours talking."

"There's no problem with the neighbours, Sir!" Pooja told him, "I doubt they even noticed that you arrived, and if they ask then we'll tell them you're my older brother."

Raj allowed himself to be convinced to stay the night, but insisted that he would be sleeping on the couch. Bringing him a pillow and a blanket, Naina waited until the other girls had gone to their rooms before kissing him goodnight sweetly and heading to her own room. Shifting on the couch until he was comfortable, Raj was very aware of the fact that Naina was only one room away, but he knew that now was definitely not the time. Tired from the journey, he went to sleep quickly, not even noticing when Naina crept out of her room quietly to sit on the floor looking at him.

The moment that Pooja got up in the morning and came out to the lounge room she had to stifle a laugh, then she knocked quietly on Neelu's door to tell her to come out and see. There, Raj and Naina lay together asleep on the couch, one of his arms draped over her, his head buried in her neck.

Quietly the two girls left the lounge room, heading back to their own rooms.

This time they would make sure that Naina and Raj weren't disturbed at all.

/

For the third time in his life, Raj experienced the heavenly feeling of waking up with Naina in his arms. He thought that if there was a feeling that he loved the most in the world, it was surely this, her soft body cradled against his, her silky hair brushing against his face. Awake, but not quite ready to get up yet and abandon this feeling, Raj pulled Naina even more closely against him, marvelling at the way the curves of her body fit so perfectly against the hard planes of his. Naina made a small noise that sounded like contentment. Raj tried to remember how she'd ended up there in the first place, but he only had a faint memory from the night before of Naina climbing onto the couch, taking his arm and draping it over her while he was still half asleep.

Although the desire Raj felt for Naina was immense, he had decided that Neelu's intrusion the night before had been a sign. Despite the length of time he had known Naina and even the amount of time they had officially been in a relationship, they had never really had the chance to date properly. He knew that Naina hadn't had a relationship before this, and he wanted her first, and hopefully only, experience to be memorable. They had a whole lifetime ahead of them, there was no need to rush anything. As hard as it would be to have a proper relationship when he was hundreds of miles away most of the time, he could at least try his best to let her be a normal girl for awhile with a normal boyfriend.

Leaning over, he planted a kiss on her cheek, and then another on her temple close to her eye. Naina grumbled slightly, obviously not wanting to get up anytime soon.

"Come on, Naina, wake up." He whispered in her ear, and Naina slowly opened her eyes, blinking into his face due to the sunlight now streaming through the window.

"Good morning," she whispered sleepily, "When did you wake up?"

"About five minutes ago, sleepy head, when did you join me last night?"

"I'm not sure," Naina admitted, "I woke up in the night and wondered why I was sleeping alone when you were just in the next room."

Raj desperately wanted to kiss her after that comment, but he was afraid that it might lead to a repeat of yesterday with one of her friends walking in on them. Instead he sat up, helping Naina to do so as well, although she started leaning against his shoulder instead.

"I haven't slept properly for days," she explained, "I was so excited about you coming to visit."

Raj stroked her hair as she leaned against his shoulder, before placing a kiss on the top of her head. "You really can't imagine how much I miss you when I'm not with you." He told her.

"If it's anything like how much I miss you, then I think I can." Naina replied.

"So shall we get ready then?" Raj asked her.

"For what?" Naina was suddenly excited at the thought that he had something planned.

"You'll see," Raj promised her.

/

Shortly after this, Raj and Naina left the house, ready for the day ahead.

"So where are we going today?" she asked him, unable to stop herself from smiling when he reached over to hold her hand as they walked towards the jeep.

"Well Naina, today we're going to go on a proper date." He told her, "We've never actually had one of those."

Naina realized that he was right, after everything they'd been through together, and how far their relationship had progressed, they never had actually been out together as a couple. Even at Ali and Pooja's engagement they had been pretending that they hadn't come together in front of Brigadier Chandook. Naina couldn't believe how excited she felt by his announcement. It would be nice to pretend that they were just a normal couple for awhile with no problems other than those that other normal couples had.

Raj couldn't miss the wide grin on Naina's face, and he squeezed her hand before letting go to get in the jeep. "So where to first?" Naina asked him, Raj just smiled.

For the rest of the day they were inseparable, never letting go of each other except when absolutely necessary. Even when Raj let go of her hand it was usually to put his arm around her shoulders or waist instead. They strolled around Connaught Place, Naina having to refuse every time Raj spotted something that he would like to buy her, but still by lunch time they both had a collection of bags which were mainly presents for each other. Naina had insisted on buying Raj a new watch and having it engraved with a message from her. He was pleased by the gift, knowing that this way he would have a reminder of her close by at all times. She had also bought him various shirts, while he had bought her a variety of outfits, and some sets of earrings as well as some bangles. That was the best part of the shopping experience, being able to slip bangles onto Naina's wrist in order to see if they fit and how they looked, her hand soft in his.

Finally when their shopping was done, they stopped for lunch, sitting together in a booth at the back of a quiet restaurant, where they could happily romance with nobody to disturb them, offering each other bites of the food and nudging each others' feet.

It was in the afternoon that they went to see some of Delhi's tourist attractions. It didn't matter that Raj had already seen them before, as had Naina. With the other by their side, both of them saw the scenes through new eyes. It was then that Raj got the idea of where to take Naina the next day, pleased with himself for thinking of it.

They watched the sunset together at Humayan's Tomb, Naina's head leaning on his shoulder, holding hands. They didn't need to speak at that moment, each understood everything the other might wish to say. Afterwards, they headed home quickly to change as Raj had told Naina that they would both need to be in formal wear for the dinner that night.

As soon as they got home she began to worry about what to wear, throwing outfit after outfit on the bed before she finally chose a new dress she had bought with Raj in mind. She came out to find Raj looking even more dashing, having changed his pants and shirt to look more formal, along with one of his best jackets.

"Shall we go?" he asked her with a smile, offering her his arm, as behind his back Neelu and Pooja both made thumbs up signs to Naina.

The rest of the evening passed like a dream, as he took her for dinner at one of the most best restaurants in the city before they danced to the live jazz band. Leaning her head on his shoulder as she swayed in his arms, Naina couldn't help thinking how perfect this day had been.

It had been worth waiting more than a year to finally be able to spend time with Raj properly.

He dropped her back to her apartment quite late at about 11pm, and was about to go when Naina stopped him.

"You know you don't have to go." She told him hopefully, "I'm sure the girls wouldn't mind if you stayed over again."

"I think that twice in two days is probably pushing our luck," he told her, "I really don't want to get you into trouble with your neighbours and Mr and Mrs Sahni."

"You're Pooja's brother, remember?" she told him, "And it's not as if Yudi, Aalekh and even Ali won't be staying here when they come to visit."

Cursing himself for being so easily convinced, Raj allowed her to lead him inside, where Neelu and Pooja were still awake and watching television.

"Hey you two are back earlier than we expected," Pooja told them, "We thought that you would be gone another couple of hours at least."

"Or not be back at all…" Neelu whispered so that only Pooja could hear it, earning herself an elbow in the ribs.

"Well we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so I didn't want to get Naina home too late." Raj told them, looking as if he wanted to say something else but wasn't sure how.

"Are you staying here tonight, Sir?" Pooja asked him innocently, "You know I really think you should, after all, why go home to an empty apartment when you can stay here with us?"

"Uh thanks, Pooja." He told her, "I was just…"

"Going to accept our offer and stay the night!" Neelu cut in quickly before he could say anything else, "But on one condition! Rather than sleeping on the couch, you'll go and stay in Naina's room."

Both Raj and Naina suddenly turned red, remembering exactly what Neelu had walked in on the previous day.

Neelu just rolled her eyes, "There's no need to be so embarrassed about it," she told them.

At the continued look of embarrassment and discomfort on their faces, Neelu thought that she'd better explain herself further. "I'm not telling you two to go and do anything together!" she burst out, leading to relieved sighs from both Raj and Naina, "Just go and sleep in the same room. At least that way you won't both wake up all cramped from trying to fit on the couch."

"Neelu, just shut up now and let's go to bed." Pooja told her, practically dragging Neelu away before she managed to say anything to embarrass them even further. "Good night, Naina! Good night, Sir!"

"Good night, Pooja." Raj called out as she continued to go down the hallway quickly, taking Neelu to her room. Naina struggled not to laugh, no matter how embarrassing her friends could be at times, there was never a dull moment while they were around. Looking at Raj shyly, she made a slight motion with her head. "I'll just go and change." She told him, disappearing into the bedroom and shutting the door while she changed into her nightwear as he made his own way to the bathroom to change.

When he came back he stared at Naina, a mixture of emotions in his eyes. Her hair was now undone and resting on her back, while the singlet top that she was wearing had only thin straps, exposing her shoulders.

"I, uh, think I should go back to the lounge room to sleep." Raj told her honestly.

"I trust you," Naina told him, taking his hand and leading him to the bed.

"That's what I'm worried about." Raj told her, "Maybe you shouldn't trust me so much."

Naina just smiled and lay down beside him, pulling his arms around her waist. Raj happily nuzzled her neck and shoulders gently, placing soft kisses there. He placed one hand under her top so that it lay on the soft skin of her stomach and then tried to control his breathing, knowing that his heart was beating way too fast.

Slowly they both drifted off to sleep, feeling safe, loved and warm in each others' arms.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

The fourth time in his life of waking up with Naina and it was still the best feeling that he'd ever experienced, well that was except for kissing Naina, hugging Naina, Naina's smile… Raj decided to stop making the list before it got way out of hand.

Instead of waking her up, he watched her as she slept, propping himself up on one arm for a better view. She opened her eyes not long after that, obviously having realized that he was looking at her. Smiling happily, Naina pulled him down for a good morning kiss, ruffling his hair with her fingers.

"So what are we doing today?" she asked him sleepily.

"Well I thought that in the morning we might go see a movie," he told her, "And then after lunch it's a surprise."

"I like surprises." Naina told him, "Especially if they're your surprises."

And so that morning they went to see a movie just like a normal couple. He bought them popcorn and a drink to share, and didn't take his arm from around her shoulders for the whole film. He still had his arm around her shoulders when they walked towards the jeep.

"So where are we going now?" Naina asked, as they ate their lunch. Raj just smiled mysteriously.

"You'll find out soon enough," he told her, "Just be patient."

Naina made a face at this, obviously not liking the idea of having to be patient for anything. Laughing, Raj paid the bill and led her out of the restaurant, still holding her hand.

It was only when they had turned onto the highway leading out of Delhi, that Naina began to get an idea of where he was taking her.

"Are we going where I think we're going?" she asked him.

"I've heard that it looks the most beautiful at sunset." Raj told her, "Let's see if it's true."

Leaning over from her seat, Naina planted a kiss on his cheek. "This is the best surprise ever." She told him, "I've never been to the Taj Mahal before."

"I went a long time ago." Raj told her, trying to keep his concentration on the road.

"Not with a girl?" Naina asked him, a little jealously.

Raj just laughed. "No, not with a girl, actually it was with my parents when they were still alive."

Naina just nodded, she already knew about the accident that had killed his parents when he was a teenager, about the sorrow it still caused him.

"But I've heard that it looks even more beautiful when you see it with somebody you love." He continued, looking across at her with a very affectionate smile.

"Then it should be the most beautiful sight I've ever seen." Naina replied.

They arrived in Agra about two hours before sunset but it took them a long time to negotiate their way around the city and then find parking since it was the high tourist season. By the time they actually entered the complex of the Taj Mahal, there was only about an hour left until the sun was about to set.

Naina stared at it in amazement, holding on to Raj's arm tightly. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. They strolled around the complex taking in the various sights, before heading over to the actual Taj Mahal for a closer look. Naina was glad that she had chosen to dress traditionally that morning in a beautifully embroidered white churidar kameez.

She smiled with such an innocence that Raj felt he could just gaze at her and keep gazing, without ever getting tired of it. Tugging on his hand, she dragged him around to see various things, exclaiming over everything she discovered. Near the entrance they had their photo taken by one of the men offering to do so, wanting to have something to remember this day by.

Sitting at a distance on the grass with their arms around each other, they watched the sunset as it glinted off the white marble and the inlaid gemstones.

Raj could have said any number of clichéd things at that moment, about how he wished he could build a memorial to their love, or how people would remember them in the future, but there was no need to. Instead they sat there in silence, enjoying the moment.

Their love needed no words or promises, it was perfect already.

/

Since it was already dark by the time they left the Taj Mahal, Raj decided it would be best to drive back to Delhi as soon as possible. After all, Naina had college in the morning and he had a flight in the early afternoon. However when he reached the highway, Raj frowned seeing the massive build up of traffic in front of them. With traffic like this, they would be lucky to reach Delhi before the morning. Asking one of the policeman who was trying to direct traffic, Raj found out that there had been an accident involving several trucks and cars, and that traffic was unlikely to be cleared for several hours at least.

"What do we do now?" he asked Naina, "We could always stay in Agra for the night, but you have class in the morning."

"Raj, I'm currently topping my class," Naina told him, "I don't think that skipping one morning is going to make that much difference. But what about your flight?"

"If we leave early tomorrow then we'll definitely make it back in time for my flight." Raj informed her, "It doesn't leave until 2pm."

"Then maybe we should try to find a hotel." Naina told him, "Otherwise we'll be sitting in the car all night waiting for this traffic to clear."

Turning the car around quickly, Raj headed back towards the city, noticing that many other people were doing the same thing. For the next hour, they searched for a hotel but every single place they went to was full. It was the high tourist season, and many people who had been heading back to Delhi had been stuck in the traffic jam and decided to stay as well.

Finally, deciding to try his luck, Raj stopped the car at a five star hotel, figuring that most people would probably prefer not to stay in such an expensive hotel if they had the choice so there might be some rooms empty.

As he went to walk towards the entrance to ask, Naina stopped him with a hand on his arm, "Raj, we can't afford to stay in a place like this." She whispered.

"Of course we can, Naina." He told her, "It's only for one night and I have enough money."

"But it's…"

"No buts, for the past few years I haven't had anybody to spend my money on, therefore I have quite a bit saved up. And besides," he took her hands as he said this, "I would much rather that you stay somewhere like this than in some cheap hotel."

Naina tried to protest again but Raj held up a hand to silence her and led her towards the hotel foyer, holding her hand.

"I was wondering if you have any rooms free," he asked the person at the desk, "We got stuck in the traffic jam due to the accident and need somewhere to stay for the night."

"You're very lucky, Sir." The clerk told him, "We have only one room left and that's because the occupant cancelled their reservation an hour ago."

Raj looked uncomfortable and was about to tell him that they would go somewhere else, when Naina suddenly spoke.

"We'll take it," she told the clerk, "Thank you very much."

Raj stared at her as if to say 'What are you doing?' But Naina just indicated that she would explain to him once they reached the room.

"We could've found another hotel with two rooms," Raj told her, once they were in the room and the door was closed. "We didn't have to accept this one."

"Raj, it's okay," Naina reassured him, "We might have had to search all night for a hotel with two rooms available or we might not have found one at all. This will be fine for us."

Despite the confidence in her voice, Raj couldn't help but notice that she kept adjusting her dupatta nervously. He was very aware of the fact that they were alone together in a hotel room where nobody could disturb them; not friends nor house mates nor party guests. By the way Naina was avoiding meeting his gaze, he guessed that she must have realized this too.

Noticing that she was wrapping and unwrapping the edge of her dupatta around her fingers again and again, Raj gently took Naina's hand in his and made her sit down on the bed.

"Naina, just because we're alone together in a hotel room, it doesn't mean that anything actually has to happen." He reassured her. "We'll just go to sleep and then tomorrow morning we'll get up early and head back to Delhi. You don't need to be so nervous."

Naina nodded silently, still not looking up. She held on tightly to Raj's hand, and he had the feeling that she was trying to say something but failing. Naina sat like that for awhile, neither speaking nor moving, until finally she looked up to meet Raj's eyes. He was stunned by the expression in them, that along with a nervousness and a shyness there was also desire, desire which he knew was for him.

"But what if…" Naina tried to say it and failed, then tried again, "What if I don't mind if something happens?"

At her words, heat began to build up in Raj's body, suddenly the room was too warm and he felt an urge to loosen his shirt. He thought about his decision yesterday morning that they should wait until they'd had a chance to date properly, he thought about the fact that her parents still hadn't accepted him. And then he thought about how much he really, really wanted Naina, and for how long he had fought it.

"Naina," he breathed her name, "Naina, you don't know how much I…"

There was a battle going on inside him, as he tried to choose what was right and wrong in this situation. Raj was struggling with himself, struggling to control his own feelings and to deny what it was that he truly wanted. There were so many reasons why he shouldn't allow himself to do this, why he should wait, but with Naina sitting on the bed in front of him, he really didn't want to pay attention to any of them.

"I've told you before, Raj." She said, only slightly shyly, "You don't need to be so good all the time. We've waited for so long already."

"Naina," he whispered, "Naina…" and he kissed her, long and sweetly, as she entwined her fingers with his and he shifted himself even closer to her on the bed. When Naina's lips parted beneath his, he deepened the kiss, holding her hands even tighter in his. Naina's head tilted back under the pressure of his lips, and he placed one hand behind her neck in order to support her head.

Breaking the kiss reluctantly, he cradled her face between both of his hands. "Naina, any time you're uncomfortable just tell me and I'll stop straight away." He told her sincerely. Naina nodded and the trust in her eyes threw him off balance. In so many ways she was his anchor, his shore. He needed her for his life to make any sense at all.

He had no words to tell her how much he loved her or how much she really meant to him. All he could do is to try and show her, so he did. A little shyly, Naina removed her dupatta, placing it to the side. Then slowly, with slightly shaking fingers, she began to undo the buttons on his shirt.

Raj couldn't think of any word to say except her name, so he whispered it again, his mouth next to her ear as she slipped the shirt off his shoulders. Leaning forward, Naina bent to kiss him once on the neck, and Raj shivered, pulling her closer, bringing his arms to rest at the back of her waist. Naina clung to him, resting her head on his bare shoulder, her hands clutching his back. She was still shivering slightly but he had no idea whether it was from cold, nervousness or desire, or some strange combination of all three.

Slowly he started from her jaw, kissing down her neck and across one of her shoulders. He moved his hands so that they were under her kameez, lifting it slightly to expose her bare waist. Raj stopped to tilt Naina's head up gently with one hand, searching her eyes for consent before he lifted her top off her completely.

For a moment he was completely speechless, taking in the curves of her body, the swell of her breasts underneath her bra. Raj noticed that Naina was looking downwards as if embarrassed and he took her face in his hands again.

"Naina, have I ever told you that you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen?" Raj asked her.

"This is the third time." Naina told him with a small smile, momentarily forgetting her nervousness.

Raj looked down at her, still with his hands cupped around her face. "We can stop right now." He told her, "We don't need to do anything else tonight."

But Naina leaned forward and kissed him, pressing herself to him so closely that Raj could feel in minute detail the softness of her skin against the tautness of his muscles. He knew that Naina wasn't going to tell him to stop, and he couldn't help but be grateful. It had been difficult to resist her all these months and if he was honest, then there was nothing he wanted more in the world right now than to take their relationship to the next step. He ached for her, he burned for her, he felt like he might burst into flames at any moment with the effort of controlling his desire.

Finally breaking the kiss, Naina pulled herself back slightly so that she could look into Raj's eyes. With an expression of incredible love on her face, she ran her fingers through his hair, and Raj inclined his head slightly, leaning into her touch.

"We don't need to stop." She told him finally, her expression completely serious. "Now is exactly the right time."

Leaning back in to kiss her again, Raj couldn't help but completely agree.

/

Afterwards she lay in his embrace with her head resting on his chest, their legs entangled and one of her arms around his waist. One of Raj's arms was around her shoulders, his hand rubbing her back in continuous circles.

"What about Rajasthan?" he asked her.

"For what?" Naina mumbled into his chest sleepily.

"For our honeymoon," Raj told her, the thought had suddenly come into his head a few moments ago and he wanted to see how she felt about it. "We could go to Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur… Maybe even Pushkar and Jaisalmer if there's time."

Raj wasn't sure, but he thought he could feel her smiling where her face leaned against his chest. "I know you'd like Rajasthan," he told her, "But we can go somewhere else if you prefer."

Naina still hadn't raised her head, but Raj was now quite sure that she was giggling against his chest. Finally she looked up, locking eyes with him by the light of the one lamps they have left on in the room.

"Raj, we haven't even gotten married yet and you're already planning the honeymoon." She commented, "Don't you think that we should tackle the first part first?"

"If you like then we'll go and get married right now," Raj told her sincerely, "I'm sure there must be a temple here somewhere, we can be officially husband and wife within an hour."

"No," Naina told him, "I would prefer it if we could get married properly with all of our friends there." He noticed that she didn't mention family and wondered whether she had already given up on her parents.

"Naina, next time I get leave I'll come to your house." Raj promised her, "It's time, I don't think that we should wait any longer. I'll confess everything to your parents and ask them for your hand."

Naina nodded, leaning her head back down against his chest again, even she thought they had waited long enough. She was sick of being scared of what her parents would think, she just wanted to know once and for all. If they rejected her then she would be ready for that, but surely they couldn't stay angry forever.

"It will all be okay." She told him, "Whatever happens, we'll face it together." Without meaning to, she tightened her grip around his waist. She'd made her decision, she'd made it a long time ago. Now all that remained was to find out what the consequences were.

/

They left early in the morning for the drive back to Delhi, spending it mainly in silence, each one still absorbed in thoughts of the night before. Raj couldn't help but feel a little guilty about breaking his earlier promises, now all he wanted to do was to marry Naina as soon as possible. The more time he spent apart from her, the more he realised how hard it was to live without her. They briefly stopped in at the apartment so that Naina could change her clothes and grab her books, and Raj could put on his uniform, then he drove her to the college. Stepping out of the car, he walked Naina to the steps where she put down the books and stepped into his arms. Cradling her to him, Raj savoured her warmth, knowing that it would be at least three months before he was able to feel it again.

"I'll find out when I'm eligible for leave next," he told her, "And then we'll talk to your parents."

Naina nodded silently, then reached up to touch his face. "Be safe," she told him, "Look after yourself." She didn't trust herself to say anything else, so she just hugged him again, trying not to cry now that he was actually leaving.

Raj smoothed her hair gently, also trying to stop tears from coming to his eyes. "I'll be back before you know it," he promised her, "Just keep concentrating on your studies and don't worry about anything."

He kissed her very briefly and then after one long last hug, walked back to the car where he stood watching her until she had walked to the top of the steps. Naina turned back to wave and he returned the gesture, only leaving for the airport once she had stepped inside the college.

/

Pooja has been dying all day to ask Naina where she was the night before and why she was so late to college that day, but they were never alone together for a moment until they returned to the apartment. Neelu was already home, and both girls immediately cornered her, intending to find out all the gossip.

"So Ms Ahluwalia, where were you last night?" Neelu asked her in a mock serious tone, "Come on and confess everything or I'll make sure that Aalekh knows you didn't come home!"

Naina tried to stop herself blushing and glared at Neelu instead, pretending to be offended. "We went to Agra." Naina told her, "Raj wanted to take me to see the Taj Mahal and it looks best at sunset."

"Oh does it?" Pooja asked, exchanging a knowing smile with Neelu, "So did you stay at the Taj Mahal for the entire night looking at the stars that you didn't come home?"

"We were going to come home," Naina told them defensively, "But there was a huge accident on the Delhi-Agra highway and it was impossible to get back. So we were forced to stay in a hotel."

"Ohhhh, you were 'forced' to stay in a hotel?" Neelu asked teasingly.

"Stop it guys," Naina told them, now unable to stop herself from blushing.

Noticing the blush on Naina's face and the way she kept trying to leave the kitchen where they had her cornered, Neelu laughed. "Something happened didn't it?" she asked Naina, and then seeing the look of utter embarrassment on Naina's face she clapped her hands in delight, "Something definitely happened!"

Pooja looked partially shocked and partially pleased, "Naina, you didn't…"

Naina cut her off before she could say anything else. "We've made a decision." She informed them. "Next time Raj gets leave, we'll be telling my parents the truth. Then we'll be getting married."

"Oh Naina, that's such good news!" Pooja exclaimed and both of the girls hugged her.

Despite their nosiness, Naina was glad she had them with her. She didn't know what would happen but one thing was for certain.

She would need the support of her friends in the days to come.

/

The news that Raj and Naina were finally going to tell her parents the truth and that they would soon be getting married, spread quickly through all of Naina's friends, and their responses were varied. Pooja and Neelu were just trying to support Naina, knowing how difficult it was for her when she didn't know how her family would react. Huda immediately went out and ordered laddoos before distributing them to the whole regiment. Ali went to the local dargah to offer a chador and some flowers and to pray for their future happiness, Yudi immediately started telling anybody who would listen about how he had always known it would turn out like this, and for once Aalekh couldn't stop smiling. The moment he heard the news he went to see Raj, and immediately hugged him.

Raj was a little taken aback, Aalekh wasn't usually the most emotional of the cadets and didn't display affection very often.

"What's this for, Aalekh?" he asked, a bit confused.

"Just keep her happy, Sir." Aalekh told him, "You both deserve some happiness after everything. As long as you keep Naina happy, I'll follow you into any battle, no matter how dangerous."

Hearing this, Raj's eyes almost filled with tears. He was glad that Naina had such true and loyal friends, and he knew that Aalekh would always be there for her, no matter what.

"And besides," Aalekh added, after he'd stopped hugging Raj, "It was about time. I kept wondering when you would finally get around to doing it."

Raj just thanked god that Aalekh didn't know all of the reasons behind why he and Naina had finally decided that it was time to tell her parents, otherwise he would be a dead man.

"What about you?" Raj asked him, "When are you going to propose to Neelu?"

Aalekh just shrugged, "Marry Naina first and then we'll see about me and Neelu."

/

Barely a day after Raj had arrived back, he got a call on his phone, recognising the number as being from KMA but not knowing who it was, he picked it up curiously.

"Hello?"

"Now I know that you must have been just about to call me and tell me the happy news, but since I already found out, I thought I might as well call you instead."

Raj laughed, incredibly happy to hear the voice on the other end of the line.

"Shalini, I swear that I was going to call you tonight." He told her, "How did you find out so quickly and who spoiled my surprise?"

"I'll give you three guesses." She told him.

"Yudi." Raj replied immediately, knowing that he was the one among the group of friends that was most likely to be in contact with Shalini.

"Exactly," she replied, "So how did this all happen? I thought you were going to wait until they forgave you. Why now instead?"

Raj had to think very carefully before he spoke, despite the fact that Naina was no longer his student, it was always possible that Shalini still might murder him.

"Shalini, being apart from Naina for six months has taught me that it's incredibly hard to live without her." Raj said very simply. "And I don't know if I can stand to wait until her parents eventually give in. We made the decision together and we think it's the right one."

"I'm very proud of you, Raj." Shalini told him, "Have you thought about exactly how you're going to break the news to them yet?"

Raj sighed, "That's exactly what I'm worried about, I'm fairly sure that they're not going to take the news well and I really don't want Naina's heart broken." He paused, feeling slightly guilty, "Shalini, sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing the right thing by making Naina choose between me and her parents."

"Raj, if I know Naina well then I know that she made that choice a long time ago, the moment that she chose to start a relationship with you." Shalini reassured him. "Now let's talk tactics to try and work out how we can break the news to them without them throwing you out of the house."

Raj was grateful, he knew he could use all the help he could get.

/

As the time drew closer to telling her parents, Naina became more and more nervous. She had already arranged with them that she would come home that weekend to visit, which was nothing unusual because she did visit her parents about once a month.

Neelu and Pooja tried to keep her distracted and Naina concentrated even more on her studies, glad to be doing something that kept her from thinking about the confrontation that was going to happen. The only thing she was happy about was that Aalekh would be arriving on leave the day after they planned to tell her family. Whatever happened, at least he would be there to support her.

The night before she was due to leave for Nainital, Pooja and Neelu were trying to convince her to eat something while Naina kept refusing.

"I just can't," she told them, "I think it I eat anything right now then I'll just vomit it right back up."

"Oh god," Neelu said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "You're not pregnant are you?"

Naina just gaped at her, her face turning red. "Neelu, of course not!" she exclaimed, "I mean we…" and then she abruptly stopped, far too embarrassed to say anything else.

"You what? Used precautions?" Neelu said with an eyebrow raised, "Or were you about to lie to me that nothing happened between the two of you that night?"

Naina just kept silent, but by the way that her face kept turning red it was obvious that it was the first option she had been about to say.

Pooja cleared her throat to try and lessen Naina's embarrassment, "It's been three months, I think she'd have figured out if she was pregnant by now, Neelu." She added, trying to be helpful. Naina just groaned and hid her face in her hands. 

"Are you two trying to make me feel better or worse?" she asked.

"Well, didn't you forget about your parents for a moment there?" Neelu asked her in reply.

Naina realised that she had, and gave her friend a small smile, knowing that no matter how embarrassing Neelu's methods were, at least she meant well.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty One**

When Naina arrived at her parents' house the next day, she hugged them both as closely as she could. If things went badly then she didn't know when she might be able to see them again or when they might forgive her. If they hadn't forgiven Raj until now, then would they really forgive her for what they would see as her betrayal? She had a day left with them until Raj arrived and she tried to make the best of it. She helped her mother with cooking, played chess with her father and had long talks with them about her college and her friends. Never once did she mention Raj, or try to figure out whether they had forgiven him yet. She was too scared to. That night Naina went to bed fearing the worst and she could barely sleep all night. She tossed and turned, thinking about all of the possibilities for the next day.

Raj was due to arrive at 2pm the next day, and from 10am onwards she looked at the clock at least every fifteen minutes and sometimes more often.

"Are you waiting for something?" her mother finally asked her, confused, when Naina looked up from the potatoes she was preparing for lunch for about the tenth time.

"No Ma, not at all." Naina replied guiltily, and promised herself that she wouldn't look at the clock for at least another half an hour.

She tried to treasure the time she had left with her parents knowing that from 2pm, everything would change forever. She didn't know whether it would change for better or worse but she knew that nothing would ever be the same.

As soon as the clock struck two she started counting, she didn't even get to one hundred before there was a knock on the door.

Noticing the panicked look on Naina's face, her mother stared at her curiously. It was obvious from Naina's expression that she had been waiting for somebody to arrive, but who? Naina had turned so white that her mother was afraid she was about to faint, and quickly hurried over to her. "Are you alright, Naina?"

It was at that moment that Mr Ahluwalia opened the door.

/

Raj didn't think he had ever felt this nervous before in his entire life. Even confessing to Naina's parents that he was the one who had killed Navin was nothing compared to this. His heart was hammering against his ribs so hard that he could barely even think, and its beats were practically drowning out any other noise. Then Mr Ahluwalia opened the door and for a moment, everything went still.

"Major Rajveer," he greeted him coldly, "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to speak with you about something important, Sir." Raj told him, glad that he was actually able to get the words out.

"I can't think of anything that we might have to say to each other," Mr Ahluwalia replied, "Everything that needed to be said has been said already."

"There's something that hasn't been said yet, Sir." Raj insisted, "And it's very important that I say it to you today."

Mr Ahluwalia thought about it for a moment, and then reluctantly stepped aside to let Raj in before leading him to the lounge room where Mrs Ahluwalia was bent over Naina.

"Meera, we have a guest." Naina's father announced in a very unhappy tone, and Mrs Ahluwalia turned around. Suddenly she thought that she understood everything, and she turned back to stare at Naina. But Naina wasn't looking at her, instead her eyes were fixed squarely on Raj, as his were on hers.

Finally, Raj sat down and Naina's parents settled on the couch, facing him.

"Aren't you going to say hello to Major Rajveer?" Mr Ahluwalia asked Naina, growing more suspicious by the minute.

"Hi Raj," Naina said, her voice barely above a whisper. If nothing else, Naina's use of his first name confirmed what Mrs Ahluwalia has been suspecting ever since he walked in the door. Naina's hands were clenched tightly in her lap because she couldn't stop them shaking, and looking at her in such as state, Raj decided it would be best to get it over with as quickly as possible.

"Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia, we haven't seen each other since Naina's graduation, which was more than nine months ago." Raj told them, "I had hoped," he glanced at Naina then, "We had both hoped, that eventually you would understand why I had to do what I did, and that you would forgive me. It was then that we were going to tell you the truth."

He took a deep breath, trying to remember exactly how he practiced saying it, and how Shalini had coached him. "I can see clearly that you still haven't forgiven me, and I can't blame you for that, but I have to talk to you today because it concerns both mine and Naina's futures."

Mr Ahluwalia looked as if he had finally figured out what this was all about, and Raj could see a muscle twitching in his jaw.

"I've come here today," Raj continued, "Because I love Naina and I want to marry her. I know I can't expect you to accept me happily but please for your daughter's sake, at least think about it."

He stopped then, knowing that he had said enough and that he should give them an opportunity to speak.

"If I'd known that this was what you wanted to say," Mr Ahluwalia spit out, "Then I would never have let you inside." Then he turned to Naina, "Naina, you're an adult and you can make your own choices, but if you choose to go with him today then we'll think that we never had a daughter at all."

Raj stared at Mr Ahluwalia in shock, he could see Naina looking to her mother for support, but Mrs Ahluwalia was stony faced, she was not going to challenge her husband.

Raj could feel his heart breaking for Naina and for the choice that she was being forced to make. Tears appeared in her eyes as she struggled to speak. She wanted to beg them not to do this, because when they had already lost one child, why were they so keen to lose another one?

"Ma, Baba, please don't…" she began to say, but Mr Ahluwalia held up a hand to cut her off.

"Just make your decision, Naina." He told her.

Naina took a deep breath, she has been preparing herself for this moment for more than one and a half years now, always aware of the possibility that they would one day become estranged.

"I love Raj," she began earnestly, "And I can't live without him. And I know, that Navin Bhaiyya would support my decision, and if you think about it, then you'll also realise that he would have." She knew that her tone was practically begging but she couldn't help it.

"Then you've made your decision." Her father told her, his tone cold. "You can go and pack up the rest of your things. After today there's no reason to come back here."

"Baba, please, I…" Naina tried to say.

"Don't call me Baba," he cut her off, "Just get your things and go." Then he left the room.

Naina looked at her mother, begging her silently to say something, anything to let her know that she had her support, but Mrs Ahluwalia turned her face away and followed her husband out.

"I'm so sorry, Naina." Raj reached out for her, taking her hand, "I hoped that it would turn out alright, that maybe they would…."

"It's okay, Raj." Naina replied, so quietly that he could barely hear her, "Let's go to my room and pack my things."

They packed quickly, Naina choosing to take only the things that were really important to her, some family photos and mementoes, things that couldn't be replaced.

As soon as it was done, she looked around the house for her parents but they were both gone. She knew they wouldn't come back until she and Raj had left.

They both climbed into the car, Raj placing her bag in carefully before checking to see that she was settled. They managed to get two streets away before Naina started sobbing, crying so hard that she was practically in hysterics, breathing in huge gulps. Raj stopped the car by the side of the road and pulled her to him, rubbing her back while she cried into his shoulder, murmuring soothing words into her ear and kissing her hair repeatedly. He knew that there was nothing he could do to make the pain better and he worried that this would haunt Naina throughout her life.

It took awhile but eventually Naina calmed down, and he started the car again. They drove back to Delhi in silence, Naina still crying, but quietly now, less hysterical. When they arrived, instead of taking her home, Raj drove her to his apartment, led her upstairs and then once she was sitting on the couch with a hot cup of tea held between shaking hands, he called Pooja.

She picked up at the first ring, obviously having been waiting to find out what happened.

"Pooja I've brought Naina back to my place," Raj told her, "I think she'll stay here tonight with me."

From his tone of voice, Pooja could guess that it hadn't gone well. Neelu was sitting nearby her, and realised that something had gone wrong by the changed expression on Pooja's face.

"Is there anything we can do?" she asked him.

"Nothing at the moment," Raj said, "I'll bring her back tomorrow, she'll need you both then."

For the rest of the afternoon, Naina cried while Raj held her, trying to comfort her. He kept her enfolded in his arms, and occasionally he cried with her, unable to stop himself when seeing her in such pain. He convinced her to take a shower and put on some fresh clothes, hoping it would make her feel better, then gave her some herbal tea before bed hoping it would help her to sleep. Eventually he put Naina into bed and climbed in beside her, putting his arms around her, telling her to go to sleep and that it would be better in the morning. He did not sleep himself until he heard her crying stop and her breathing become more even, knowing that she had finally gone to sleep.

Raj was awoken the next morning by the doorbell; removing his arms from around Naina, and getting up as quietly as possible, he crept out of the room, trying not to wake her up. Rubbing his eyes tiredly he opened the door, not really knowing who to expect.

"Where's Naina?" Was the first thing Aalekh said to him, barging in impatiently. Raj thanked god that at least he was properly dressed.

"She's still asleep," Raj told him, "She was up crying until late last night, I don't want to wake her up just yet."

Aalekh nodded, and Raj gestured that they should go into the kitchen. Once there he made them both some coffee, knowing that even if Aalekh didn't need it, he definitely did.

"It's done now." Aalekh told him, "You don't need to feel guilty about it, Sir. If they don't accept it then it's their problem."

It didn't make the guilt go away, but Aalekh's words did make him feel a little better. At least somebody understood how he felt.

"Now that it's done," Aalekh continued, "There's no way to undo it. You two should still get married as planned, as quickly as possible."

Raj nodded, he'd been thinking the same thing. Now that Naina was separated from her parents, she was going to need him even more. "I agree," he told Aalekh, "We'll arrange it for as soon as everybody can get leave together at the same time. However that might be some months away…"

"You don't worry about that, Sir." Aalekh told him, "We'll make sure that we get leave, you just concentrate on looking after Naina."

Suddenly the door to the bedroom opened and Naina wandered out, looking pale and tired. "Raj I thought I heard…." She said, and then suddenly spotted Aalekh.

Quickly Aalekh stood, and crossed the room to hug Naina. As she began to cry again, he patted her back and her head soothingly. "Shhhh baba," he told her, "It will all be alright now, we're all with you. Everything will be fine."

Watching Aalekh with Naina, Raj felt an immense sense of relief. They would all get through this together, soon they would make it alright again.

/

As soon as they heard the news, every single one of Naina's friends called her to give her their support. Everyone had the same message, that she had done the right thing and that they were all there for her. Huda said that he would bet his favourite buffalo Rajesh that her parents would realise their mistake soon, Ali told her that Allah always helped true lovers and Yudi started on quite a long and rambling speech about how challenges only increased love, leaving Naina to wonder whether he was talking about her or himself.

Raj had been wondering how he would manage to make all the arrangements for the wedding in the one week that he had on leave. Even Aalekh had decided that it was an enormous task and that it was going to be no less than any army operation to get it done. However it was Pooja that solved their problems.

Two days after Raj and Naina returned from Nainital, she called her parents and poured out the whole story to them. Both Mr and Mrs Ghai remembered Naina from the time she had stayed at their house, how sweet and polite she had been and how she had helped Pooja to break the news about Ali. Both of them also admired Major Rajveer, having met him at academy functions.

The very next day, Mr and Mrs Ghai turned up in Delhi without any warning, immediately taking over. Raj was quite overwhelmed, but also very grateful. They were such warm and loving parents, and he knew that their presence was bound to make Naina feel better.

"You don't worry, Putar." Pooja's mother told Naina, "You've done the right thing. Children shouldn't sacrifice their happiness for their parents' sakes, especially not when it's about love. And you've chosen such a fine young man to make your connection with! I couldn't approve more of your lifelong plan!"

"Of course," Pooja's father continued, "We're here to support you, Beti. You're like our second daughter, we know how much you've helped our Pooja while she was at the academy and now it's our turn to help you. Whatever you need, we'll do it."

Gratefully, Raj turned the arrangement of the entire marriage over to them, knowing that it would've been impossible for him to do it from Ladakh and that it was far too big a job for Naina to do by herself, especially under the present circumstances.

He had the date set while he was in Delhi, calling a pandit to find the most auspicious date within a reasonable time frame. It honestly didn't matter to Raj when he and Naina got married, as long as it actually happened, but he wanted to go through all of the rituals for Naina's sake so that she wouldn't be missing out on anything. The pandit finally found a suitable date in five months time, which luckily fell during Naina's college holidays and the marriage date was set. All of their friends immediately requested their leave, there was no way that anybody was going to miss out on this wedding. Aalekh even threatened that he would go AWOL if his leave wasn't approved, and Yudi convinced him that he was sure there was no need of that.

Shalini was the one who spread the news at the academy. When he found out, Suriji immediately broke into a dance, and started singing. Then he declared that everybody could have some chai or coffee free on his behalf. Lolitaji was happy, but at the same time she was a bit concerned that something might have happened to break discipline while she was the girls' hostel warden. Shalini promised her that it wouldn't have been the case. Major Nair just scowled and said that he knew that something like that had been going on. But Shalini wasn't very surprised by his response. The second year cadets who remembered both Naina and Raj from the year before, immediately decided to throw a party (although they never needed much of an excuse to throw one anyway). The first year cadets were confused about why everybody was making such a huge fuss since they had no idea who either Raj or Naina was, but went to the party anyway.

Shalini was most worried about telling Brigadier Chandook, not sure how he would take the news. The last thing she wanted was for him to decide that he was angry with Raj for falling in love with one of his former students. However Brigadier Chandook didn't seem surprised at all when Shalini told him the news, in fact he even seemed quite happy. Seeing the shock on Shalini's face, he just chuckled.

"Doctor," he told her, "As long as there's no evidence that anything happened while he was posted at my academy, I'm not worried. I wish them both the very best."

Shalini sighed in relief, at least the hardest bit of her job was over. However as one of the chief barathis from Raj's side, she knew she would have many more tasks in the days to come. In fact he had already assigned her the task of helping Naina with the shopping for the wedding. Raj had warned her that 'helping' would probably mean convincing Naina to buy things while she tried to refuse.

Raj and Aalekh reluctantly left Delhi later that week. Both of them were at least a bit happier now, as Naina seemed calmer, having accepted the situation.

She couldn't count the number of times she had tried calling her family or how many times they had hung up on her so far. All she knew was that she had to keep trying. She started writing them letters instead, hoping that at least they might look at them. However most of the time the letters were simply returned unopened.

Raj called her daily, sometimes more than once, checking that she was okay and that everything was going alright with the preparations. He had told both Pooja's parents and Shalini that money was no issue, Naina should have the best of everything. Occasionally they would call him to check about details but mostly they were in complete control of the preparations. Pooja's parents kept traveling back and forth between Delhi and Jalandhar while Shalini occasionally came to visit from Ambala on the weekend.

It was when Raj received his share of the invitation cards that he started thinking about who he should actually give them to. Naina and he made a list of people while on the phone one night, most of whom were in the military. There were also some relatives on both of their sides that they thought would be safe to invite as well as Naina's school friends, most of whom she hadn't seen for years but who she still felt she should send cards to.

"What about your friends?" Naina had asked him, "Surely there's somebody else that you want there."

Raj thought about it, he had only had two good friends in his academy days, and Navin's death had torn him and Abhimanyu apart due to the unspoken guilt that Raj had felt. Still, as Naina was suggesting it, Raj decided that it might be time to finally try and repair their friendship.

It took him awhile to track Abhimanyu down from the army directory, but when he did, he couldn't help smiling. He suddenly remembered of their academy days, pulling pranks along with Navin and he thought it was appropriate that another friend of Navin's would also be there to see them married.

Dialling the number, Raj waited until the phone was picked up and then asked for his call to be redirected to Abhi.

"Hello?" Came the reply on the other end.

"Still remember your old friend?" Raj asked him, "Or has it been so many years that you can't recognise my voice?"

"Raj!" Abhimanyu immediately replied, his voice happy, "I haven't heard from you in an age, how are you?"

"I'm fine," Raj told him, "And I was thinking exactly the same thing, we shouldn't have fallen out of touch."

"Well at least you've called, dost," Abhimanyu replied warmly, "Now tell me what's new with you."

"I need to get your address so that I can send you an invitation card." Raj told him, introducing the subject in a very round about way.

"Really? What for?" Abhimanyu sounded both interested and curious, "Don't tell me you're getting promoted to Colonel already? I haven't even caught up to you as a Major yet." Raj laughed at that, Abhi had sent him a congratulations card when he was promoted, but his friend had always been competitive.

"No, no promotion." He reassured him, "It's an invitation to my wedding."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a minute. "Wedding?" Abhimanyu finally asked, "Is this a joke?" 

"No, I assure you, it is definitely not a joke. I'm getting married in four months, the cards have been printed and I want to send you one. I'd like you to be there."

"When did this happen?" Abhi asked him, sounding happy but very surprised, "Is it a love marriage or arranged? Where did the very shy Rajveer Singh Shekhawat finally find a girl that he liked enough to marry?"

Raj laughed, remembering his academy days when he had barely even spoken to girls.

"It's a love marriage, and how and when it happened is a very long and complicated story which will have to be told another day."

"Well the girl must be special if you're about to get married. Do I know her?"

"Sort of," Raj replied, wondering how Abhimanyu would take the news.

"Sort of?" Abhi asked him, "What does that mean? Shouldn't I either know her or not? What's her name?"

"Her name is Naina Singh Ahluwalia," Raj told him quietly, almost able to hear Abhimanyu's mouth drop open on the other end of the line as he put two and two together. "Navin's sister."

"Alright, that's it." Abhimanyu explained, "You have to explain to me how this happened, how did you two even meet, was it because of Navin's case?"

"No," Raj told him, "I was posted to Kanchanjunga Military Academy as a teacher and I met her there… she was my cadet."

"Wow, I can't believe this." Abhimanyu tells him, "I'm definitely going to have to get the details off you some time, but for now I'll give you my address and tell me the date right now so that I can request it off."

There was no way he was going to miss this wedding for the world.

/

Naina both longed for and dreaded the wedding, longed for it because finally she and Raj would be married, and dreaded it because in a way it was a type of deadline for her parents to have changed their minds. If they didn't give in before the wedding then that was it, she would've been married without her parents there and nothing could change it. But they still weren't returning her calls, and she never received any response to her letters, even when they weren't returned unopened. Naina's friends had tried calling her parents too, but as soon as Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia realised what it was about, they would hang up the phone.

But there was so much to do that it was easy for her friends to distract her from her sadness. Apart from her studies, which were growing more difficult by the day, there were many things that Naina had to do to prepare for the wedding.

Finally, three months before the wedding was due to happen, Shalini arrived for a week to help with shopping for the outfits. Raj had offered to let her stay in his apartment while she was there, but Shalini insisted on staying with the girls, having missed them a lot. They set up a spare bed for her in Naina's room.

"You know Naina, you're so lucky to have found such a great guy." She told her seriously at dinner that night, "And you've waited long enough to know that he really is the right one for you. I got married way too young and quickly, and you all know how that turned out."

All of them looked at Shalini sympathetically, if there was one thing that they wanted, it was to see her happy as well.

"You know ma'am, it's not too late to change your lifetime connection." Pooja told her, "These days people don't have to stick with their network if they're not getting a good deal from it."

"You're right, Pooja." Shalini told her, "And that's why I'm finally getting divorced, it's final now, the paperwork is all done and from next week onwards my marriage will be finished."

"That's excellent!" Neelu exclaimed without thinking, "That means that you're finally going to be my…" She was interrupted by a hard kick in the leg from Pooja, who could just tell that Neelu had been about to say something that she shouldn't, "Uh, going to be single again." Neelu finished a little lamely, glaring at Pooja as she rubbed her leg.

Shalini couldn't help blushing a little bit, guessing exactly what it was that Neelu had been about to say.

"Are you sure you're okay, Shalini?" Naina asked. She had started calling her by her first name after graduation, knowing what a good friend Shalini had been to Raj through everything. "I know it's for the best, you deserve some happiness."

Shalini smiled, knowing that Naina didn't realise she was repeating Raj's words from all those months ago. "I'll be fine, Naina." She told her, "But I think that what I definitely need is a good deal of therapeutic shopping, so this week with you girls will be fantastic."

They were all on their mid semester breaks from college, which was why this week was perfect to get all the shopping done. As well as choosing outfits for themselves, they were also in charge of choosing something to wear for Raj and all of the boys as well. Overwhelmed with happiness, Raj had promised to pay for absolutely everybody's outfits, which Naina had tried to talk him out of.

Neelu had rolled her eyes, "Oh that's right, it's going to be your money soon so you don't want him spending it on us." She had joked.

At least it had stopped Naina from protesting.

For the rest of the week they visited the best shops in Delhi, trying to find the perfect outfits for both Naina and Raj for the wedding. In the meantime they bought everybody else's clothes, and also many more outfits for Naina. All she had to do was even look at an outfit once for Shalini to buy it for her. In the end, Naina felt it was getting ridiculous and threatened to walk through shops with her eyes shut if she didn't stop it.

"Hey, this is all on Raj's orders." Shalini told her, "Don't you want to look beautiful while you're on your honeymoon? Oooo that reminds me, we should go lingerie shopping."

Naina just groaned, imagining what it was going to be like to go lingerie shopping with all three of them.

Two hours later they emerged from the shop with Naina looking very embarrassed but still with quite a few bags in her hands.

They still hadn't chosen her wedding outfit yet but had narrowed it down to three choices, she was determined to wear a traditional red outfit so that was what they had been concentrating on. They would wait to buy Raj's outfit until hers was decided on, so that they could be certain that the two would match. In the meantime they had at least managed to buy her something to wear for the joint mehndi and sangeet ceremony.

Once they got home, they all dropped the bags and then collapsed on the couches. Naina looked especially tired but she was smiling, and Pooja and Neelu exchanged secret smiles about this. It took a lot to distract Naina from her sadness, but at least they had managed to do it for a little while.

Getting up reluctantly, Naina decided that they all needed some hot chai after their huge shopping trip. She had barely been gone for a minute when Shalini followed her in. Exchanging curious looks, both Neelu and Pooja got up to also follow them. After all, Shalini hadn't told them not to.

Naina was just stirring the pot when Shalini walked up to her, "You know Naina, a lot of girls are very nervous when they get married," she told her in a very understanding voice, "So I just want you to know that if you have any questions about the wedding night then you can feel free to ask me, after all, I'm a doctor and I have been married myself."

Naina's mouth dropped open, and she dropped the spoon in shock, yelping as the hot milk splashed her where the spoon had hit it. Quickly she picked up the spoon again and tried to regain her composure.

"Uh…thank you very much Shalini, but I'll be fine, I mean, well, I mean that… it will be perfectly okay." Naina finished, having turned as red as a tomato.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Naina!" Shalini told her, "It's just a normal part of life and if you would like any advice or information then I'm here for you."

Right then Naina remembered Raj's words that sometimes he thought it was Shalini's only mission in life to embarrass him, right now she thought that maybe Shalini had changed her mission to focus on Naina instead. It didn't help at all that both Pooja and Neelu stood in the doorway smirking.

"Don't worry ma'am, she'll be fine!" Pooja told Shalini brightly, "After all she's…" suddenly catching Neelu's glare, Pooja realised exactly what she had been about to say in front of their former teacher. "She's read a lot of romance novels!" Pooja finished, just hoping that she hadn't said anything too bad.

Shalini had a very suspicious look on her face, Naina decided that it was time to distract her from the situation.

"Chai is ready, everyone!" she announced way too brightly, "Let's go and drink it before it gets cold!"

/

The next day they finally found the perfect outfit for Naina, and soon settled on one for Raj as well. It was soon afterwards that Shalini disappeared for an hour, arriving back home in a taxi with a bag in her hands.

"Where did you go?" Neelu asked her curiously, since she hadn't told them beforehand.

"Well Rajveer asked me to wait to do this until you'd chosen your outfit, just in case they didn't suit it and you needed new ones. But I think they'll be just perfect." Then she began to pull jewellery boxes out of her bag before opening them to display the contents.

There was some stunning gold jewellery inside, old fashioned in its design. Naina just stared at it, unable to believe how lovely it was.

"He didn't…." she began to say.

"Don't worry, he didn't have to buy it." Shalini told her, "This was his mother's jewellery. He wanted to give it to you while he was here but it didn't seem like the right time. So, although it's a little too late…" Saying this, she picked up a pair of bangles that were sitting on a handkerchief. "Here's the shagun officially, I hope that you'll accept them."

Naina looked completely and utterly overwhelmed and then she burst into tears.

"I really love him so much," she sobbed as they all tried to comfort her, "There was no way that I could have lived without him. You all understand, don't you? You know that I couldn't have ever left him even for their sake. You do understand, don't you?"

"Of course we understand, Naina." Pooja told her soothingly, "Your connection with Rajveer Sir is something that happens only once in a lifetime. Now dry your tears and let's put these bangles on you."

Finally getting a hold on her emotions, Naina allowed them to put the bangles on her hands.

"They really are beautiful," she told them, "And I think I'd better go and call Raj now to tell him that."

She went into the bedroom to use the phone and everybody found something else to do, wanting to leave the two lovers to talk in peace.

Raj picked up almost as soon as she had dialled, Naina wondered how he always knew it was her.

"Your mother's jewellery is beautiful," she told him softly, "Thank you."

"She would've been happy for you to have it." Raj replied, "In fact I think she would've liked you very much."

"I wish your parents were still alive," Naina told him, "I wish we would've had the blessings of at least one set of elders at our wedding."

"Me too, Naina." Raj told her, "But think of it this way, we'll have Pooja's parents and Brigadier Chandook and Suriji, even Colonel Shakti is going to come. I know they're not relatives but they're sort of like elders."

Naina smiled at that, while she had now accepted that her parents wouldn't be attending, they wouldn't have any lack of blessings when they began their new life together.

"I love you," Naina told him, "Everything we've been through, it's all worthwhile."

"I know," Raj replied, "I can't wait until we're married, I've been waiting for this day for a long time."

"Only three months to go now." Naina reminded him, "Then nobody will be able to separate us."

"You'd better believe it," Raj told her, "After our marriage I'm never going to stay without you for such a long time again."

Repeating words of love, they both hung up the phone with smiles on their faces.

The most important day of their lives was less than three months away.

Neither of them could wait.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty Two**

"Okay guys, I'm warning you now, if anybody does ANYTHING to embarrass Raj then they're officially uninvited from the wedding." Naina warned her friends as they waited at the airport, "And that comment is especially directed at you, Neelu."

Neelu tried to put on her best innocent face and failed miserably. "Chill, Naina, I won't do anything." She told her, "And besides, both Aalekh and my bro are about to arrive too, I'll be far too busy to get up to any mischief."

It was three days before the wedding and Naina, Pooja and Neelu were currently waiting at the airport to welcome the three soldiers. Their flight was arriving in the morning, whereas Ali and Huda would be arriving three hours later. Shalini would be driving down some time during the day too. For this reason everybody was especially excited, not only to be reunited with their lovers, but also to see their friends.

Pooja and Neelu exchanged grins about the way that Naina was tapping her foot impatiently and drumming her fingers on the barrier. The flight had landed five minutes ago, and she knew that any second now, they were going to come out of the exit.

"I doubt we'll need to do anything embarrassing," Neelu muttered under her breath to Pooja, "Just wait and see, the moment he comes out of there she'll create the biggest scene all by herself!"

Sure enough they were right, the moment that Raj came out of the doors, the biggest grin appeared on her face, and she began waving to let him know where they were. A matching grin was soon on Raj's face and he hurried over, leaving the other boys behind. Dropping his bag as quickly as possibly, he picked Naina up in a tight hug before swinging her around and around, planting kisses on her face. Finally putting her back on the ground, he still didn't stop hugging her, but stood there still with his arms around her waist while hers were around his neck.

Neelu waved excitedly to both Aalekh and Yudi when she saw them. Aalekh was happy to see her, but gave her a look that clearly said he was not about to give a repeat of Raj's performance.

Aalekh and Yudi came over to join them, also dropping their bags before hugging both Neelu and Pooja. Aalekh comfortably slipped his arm around Neelu's shoulders, as she put hers around his waist.

"So Pooja, when's your personal signal arriving?" Yudi asked her, unable to wait until they were all reunited again.

"In about three hours," Pooja replied, looking down at her watch to check. "What about yours?"

"Mine is…. What are you talking about? I have no idea at all!" Yudi replied a little too late while everybody else exchanged knowing looks.

"Saala Nautanki…" Aalekh muttered with a smile on his face.

Turning to face Raj and Naina who were still hugging, Pooja tapped Naina on the shoulder.

"Done?" she asked, "Or are we going to spend the next five hours right here waiting for Ali and Huda?"

"Oh yes, of course." Raj replied self consciously and reluctantly released Naina.

Looking only slightly embarrassed, but mainly happy, Naina quickly hugged both Aalekh and Yudi to welcome them.

"Well guys, shall we get you settled in?" Naina asked them, and when everybody nodded, they headed towards the exit and the car that was waiting.

They all drove to Raj's apartment, where Aalekh, Yudi, Ali and Huda were going to be staying with him until the wedding. Naina, Neelu and Pooja had spent the past few days making sure that the apartment was liveable and that they would be able to stay there comfortably.

About all they had time to do was to settle in and have a cup of tea before it was time for Pooja to head off to the airport again. The others had wanted to come with her, but she had told them it would be fine, and that she was more than capable of handling Ali and the Jat by herself.

"You guys don't separate yourselves from your personal signals," Pooja told them perfectly happily, "I'll be back in no time at all and we'll all get lunch."

"Well as my personal signal isn't… I mean, as I'm perfectly free right now, I'll come with you Pooja." Yudi told her, excited to see his friends again and knowing that Aalekh and Neelu would probably prefer to have some time without him there. After all, it was not easy to romance in front of your brother.

Seeing that Aalekh and Neelu were already busy talking together, Raj took Naina's hand and led her into his bedroom, being careful to keep the door open so nobody would assume anything untoward was happening.

"You're looking even more gorgeous than usual," he told Naina, "I've changed my mind, let's go and get married right now."

Naina blushed at this, "Stop it," she told him, "If you'd wanted then we could've gotten married months ago, you were the one who insisted on a big wedding."

"I can't wait to see you in your wedding outfit." Raj told her, his eyes sparkling. "Can I see it now?"

"Most certainly not," Naina told him, "You're not going to see it until I come there on the day of the wedding actually wearing it."

Raj sighed, "You're too cruel." He told her, "Not even one look?"

"Not even one."

/

Once Pooja and Yudi had arrived back with Ali and Huda, there was even more hugging and celebrations and it was decided that they would order in lunch from somewhere as nobody was too keen to go out. The order had only just arrived when there was another knock on the door. Getting up to open it, Naina smiled and hugged the person on the other side.

"Guys, Shalini is here!" she announced happily.

Suddenly everybody tried very hard to pretend that they were not trying to see what Yudi's reaction was, but he didn't seem bothered at all.

"Hey, you're just in time for lunch!" he told her, and Shalini settled down to join them.

It was the first time in almost a year that all of them had been in the same place at the same time so there was a lot to catch up on from the time they had been apart. Couples were seated together, but everybody was more interested in catching up with friends than being romantic, which was probably lucky otherwise Huda would have felt left out.

"I can't believe it's been such a long time since we all saw each other." Yudi announced, "I think from now on we're going to have to try to coordinate our leave so we can all have holidays at the same time."

"Excellent idea, Yudi." Huda told him, "Otherwise Ali and I are stuck out in those damn deserts while you all have fun."

Ali just smiled, he was used to Huda complaining about Rajasthan by now.

"I really do miss our academy days." Pooja told everyone, "I never realised how difficult it would be to be apart from everybody."

"Well we're all together now," Naina assured her, "And will be for at least three more days. After that…"

"You two go for your honeymoon and the rest of us have two more days together." Neelu cut in, "It was good of you to allow the boys to stay in your flat, Rajveer."

"That's perfectly alright, Neelu." Raj told her. "I'm glad to have the guys around."

"So what's our plan for today?" Huda asked, "Are there any arrangements you need us to do? Any attractive wedding guests that need to be picked up from the airport?"

Everybody just looked at Huda with amused expressions on their faces. He would never change.

"Everything is under control," Pooja told them, "All you have to do is make sure that all of your outfits actually fit you."

"Still," Huda said, "I think that just once maybe I should make sure the catering is okay, I mean the sweets, and the lassi…."

Pooja just shook her head in disbelief. "Fine, go and check out the lassi and sweets if you really want to, Huda."

It was then that everybody noticed that Naina had gone rather quiet and seemed to be becoming emotional again. Raj quickly reached out to take her hand, squeezing it.

"What's the matter, Naina?" Pooja asked her, "Why have you put yourself on silent mode?"

"I don't know…" Naina told them, "It's just sometimes I wonder, would we have been better off just having a small wedding? I mean after my parents…" Her voice trailed off as she was unable to continue. Everybody knew how upset she had been, there was only three days to go until the wedding and her parents still hadn't contacted her, it looked like they definitely wouldn't be turning up.

"Come on, Naina." Neelu told her, "Do you honestly think that any of us would've allowed you to have a small wedding?"

The rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Naina, we've been waiting for this wedding for almost two years." Pooja told her, "If not for your sake then at least for ours it had to be a big one."

"And you have no idea how many people are excited about this wedding." Shalini aded, "Almost all of the second year cadets wanted to try to run away from the academy to attend. It's only the fear of Major Nair and my promise to bring back photos that stopped them.

"So you don't think that it's… well, that it's wrong of me to be having such a large celebration when my family disapprove?" As happy as she was about the wedding, this doubt had always been at the back of Naina's mind. Would her parents become even angrier when they found out that she and Raj had had such a large marriage, as if uncaring of their feelings?

"Dekh, Naina." Aalekh told her, "I don't know what your parents are going to think, and I don't know what other people are going to think. But for our Naina, nothing but the best is good enough."

"Alright guys, that's enough of being senti for one day!" Huda announced, "Lunch is finished, I say we should get to work and give the happy couple some time alone."

"Guys, really, you don't have to do that." Naina protested, "I want to spend time with all of you."

"Well Naina, maybe that's the case for you, but some of the other happy couples really would like some time alone." Neelu joked, "So Aalekh and I are out of here."

"Yeah, come on Ali," Pooja told him, "Last time you came to Delhi I didn't finish showing you all the tourist sites. How about if we go and see the Qutb Minar this time?"

"Well I'm off to go and see whether Delhi girls are any friendlier than Rajasthani girls are," Huda told them, "Also give me the address of the caterers and I'll stop in to see whether they're doing their job properly."

That left only Yudi and Shalini to find some excuse to get out of there. "Ahhh, let's go and check the venue, Yudi." Shalini told him, "I want to see if they have it all under control."

"Okay, but you're all coming back early tonight, right?" Naina asked them, "One of Raj's old friends and batchmates will be joining us for dinner, it would be good if you could all meet him."

"Yes, early…." Neelu said, "But this time I'm definitely knocking on the door before I come in." Raj and Naina both looked as if they were about to die of embarrassment, while Pooja giggled and the rest remained clueless.

Naina noticed that before leaving, Aalekh winked at Raj who gave him a thumbs up in return.

"What was that about?" she asked, knowing that something was going on.

"Don't worry about it." Raj told her, "You'll find out tonight. For now, we have a lot of catching up to do and I haven't told you the best news of all. Come on, let's sit comfortably."

Leading her over to the couch, he made her sit first and then lay down, his head in her lap so that he was gazing up into her face. Smiling down at him, Naina began to run her fingers through his hair.

"So what's your news?" she asked him.

"Well very soon you're going to have to start doing this apartment up," Raj told her, "Because we're going to be living here permanently."

"Meaning?" Naina asked him, thinking that she understood but not daring to hope that it was really happening.

"Meaning that my next posting is confirmed. Two months after our wedding I'll be transferred to Delhi, and with any luck I should be here until your studies are finished."

"Oh my god!" Naina was incredibly excited, it had been so difficult to live without him all these months, and now they would be able to live together permanently. Happily she leaned down and kissed him, but when Raj went to deepen the kiss she pulled away playfully.

"There's only three days left until we get married." She told him, "Don't you think you should wait until then?"

"I suppose so," Raj said with a sigh, "And knowing our luck somebody would probably just come and disturb us anyway."

"That's right," Naina replied, laughing. "So don't get too carried away, Major."

"Fine," Raj said reluctantly, before a mischievous grin spread on his face, "But I don't think that a little bit of kissing would hurt too much…"

/

Late in the afternoon, the rest of their friends returned back happily. Huda had found that Delhi girls were much friendlier than those in Rajasthan and had managed to get a few phone numbers from those he had met. Yudi and Shalini had found that everything was under control at the wedding venue and at the hotel that had been booked for most of the wedding guests to stay at. Nobody asked them how they had spent the rest of their afternoon.

Ali and Pooja had also had a good time, visiting various important historical sites in Delhi. Both of their faces glowed with happiness, Ali was as quiet as he usually was, but he was now much more relaxed about things like holding hands with Pooja in public and showing affection. Aalekh and Neelu were the last to arrive, and when they did the huge grin on Neelu's face and the twinkle in Aalekh's eyes said that something had definitely happened.

"Okay, tell us, what happened?" Pooja asked, wanting to know as soon as possible.

In reply, Neelu just held out one hand, showing them a new ring on her finger. While the design was simple, it was very obvious that it was an engagement ring.

"Hai Rabba!" Pooja exclaimed, and along with Naina she rushed forward and immediately began hugging Neelu and exclaiming over the ring.

Yudi looked the most surprised out of anybody, as he approached Aalekh, everybody worried for a moment that he might be upset, but instead he enveloped his friend in the biggest hug ever.

"How could you keep this a secret?" He asked Aalekh, "You should've told me! I've been stressing for the longest time about when you and Neelu would be settling down."

"And that's exactly why I didn't tell you," Aalekh replied, "Because I knew you'd spoil the surprise for Neelu somehow. Rajveer Sir helped me to arrange it."

Neelu nodded her thanks in Raj's direction, while Raj just smiled.

"This is so wonderful," Naina told them both, "Now the only question is who the next couple to get married will be, Ali and Pooja or Aalekh and Neelu." After she had finished hugging Neelu she came over and hugged Aalekh as well, truly happy that he was finally ready to settle down. She knew how important it was to him to have a family and a place to call his own, and Neelu would provide him with that.

"It will be Ali and Pooja," Aalekh announced, "Neelu and I have an agreement, we won't be getting married until I can provide for her properly. My wife and my children should never lack anything in life."

"Well then, Ali and Pooja it is." Naina said happily, "I just hope that you're planning on getting married soon so that we've got another excuse to all get together. After all, you've been engaged for around a year now."

"I think it will probably be around another year before we get married." Ali replied, "I agree with Aalekhbhai, I should be able to provide for my family properly, to support their dreams. Pooja is still studying too."

"Well if you two aren't going to have a proper engagement party then we'll have to go out tonight to celebrate instead." Yudi told Aalekh and Neelu, "What do you say guys, how about we go out for dinner and then find somewhere to go dancing?"

This suggestion was met with cheers from everybody, and they were just starting to discuss where they should go when there was a knock on the door.

Raj quickly went to open it, knowing who it would be. "Chauhan Saheb, perfect timing as always." He told the man with long hair standing there.

They hugged each other warmly before Abhimanyu stepped into the room.

"Everybody, this is Captain Abhimanyu Rai Chauhan, my friend and batchmate." Raj announced. "Abhi, I won't tell you full names right now since there's so many of us here, this is Shalini, Yudi, Huda, Pooja, Ali, Aalekh, Neelu and…" he paused dramatically before announcing it, "This is Naina."

"So this is the girl who's stolen your heart!" Abhimanyu said happily, "You know Naina, your brother and I were very good friends, and you do remind me a little bit of him. I think you have the same eyes."

Naina smiled at this, happy to meet somebody else who had been Navin's friend. "I hope we'll find some time to talk," she told him, "It's wonderful to finally meet a friend of Raj's."

"Well you'll meet many more," Abhimanyu reassures her, "I think that just about all of our old batchmates are going to try and turn up."

"Well now that the introductions are over, I think it's time to start discussing our plan." Raj told them, "Abhi, you've arrived at exactly the right time, you see our friends Aalekh and Neelu have just gotten engaged today and we were thinking of going out to celebrate."

Abhimanyu congratulated them both, and they quickly made a decision where they would go to celebrate.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting together at the restaurant, and Naina was enthralled as both Raj and Abhimanyu told stories about their days in the academy and all of the pranks and mischief they had gotten up to with Navin. Afterwards they danced the night away at a disco, and for once, Raj didn't object to buying Aalekh and Neelu drinks.

By the time they all headed back to sleep, they were pleasantly exhausted. Now there were only two days to go before the wedding and many things to get done before then.

Things were going perfectly, and Naina had begun to feel better as the day of the marriage approached.

She had her friends with her, friends who loved her and whom she loved in return. For the past three years they had been her family, laughed with her and cried with her and they were going to be by her side on the most important day of her life.

Whatever happened in the future, whatever challenges they faced, Naina knew one thing for certain.

They would be friends forever.

/

The next day everybody had busied themselves with various last minute tasks for the wedding, as there were still a million things to do. Outfits had to be tried on and taken for last minute adjustments, decorations and food arrangements had to be double checked, guests had to be welcomed and looked after. Quite a few of their batchmates had arrived early for the wedding as they were also planning to attend the Sangeet and Mehndi ceremony the following night. Some of Naina's school friends had also decided to attend, so she had to make sure they were well looked after and comfortable. In the end it was a very busy day, and the friends hardly had any time to spend together at all, although they made sure that they met up for lunch in order to compare notes on their progress.

Finally everybody was done for the day and all of the guys had arrived back at Raj's house, and were waiting for the girls to arrive.

"You know now that Aalekhbhai is engaged, there's more pressure on you two." Ali joked to Huda and Yudi, "You're falling behind us, you had both better find yourselves somebody to get married to soon."

"What can we do about it?" Yudi joked back, "It seems like your room at the academy must have been the lucky one, since both of you room mates are now engaged. Maybe Huda and I are doomed to stay bachelors."

"Oh I wouldn't bet on that, Yudi." Huda replied confidently. "Huda can find a janani to marry whenever he wants, he just isn't ready yet. And when there's so many beautiful girls out there waiting for Huda's attention… then wouldn't it be a crime for him to choose only one."

Yudi groaned at this, Huda would always remain Huda.

"Then I'll make a bet of my own," Aalekh said, "Yudi will definitely be the next one after us to get married. I bet you 1000 rupees, Huda."

"No way," Huda replied, "Huda doesn't make bets that he knows he's going to lose."

"Hey!" Yudi said indignantly, "Why are you all so sure that I'm going to get married first? Hasn't Huda always been the one with all the luck with the girls, none ever even wanted to look at me."

"Yudibhai, you don't need many girls to want to look at you, it only takes one." Ali explained patiently.

"Which you already have." Aalekh announced casually, "So stop pretending that you don't."

"I have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about." Yudi announced airily, even as they could see his face turning slightly red.

"Then tell us with a straight face that there's nothing going on between you and Shalini." Huda replied, crossing his arms over his chest, almost as a challenge to Yudi.

"I'll tell you that… that's none of your business." Yudi replied, but they could tell by the smile on his face that he wasn't really offended.

"Tere to…" And Huda began to chase him around the living room, just as Raj opened the door to the apartment accompanied by all the girls, who he had gone to pick up.

Huda and Yudi both froze exactly on the spot, realising that they'd been chasing each other around Raj's living room rather than around their room at the boys' hostel, all they could think was that thank goodness they hadn't broken anything.

"Ahhh, are we disturbing something?" Raj asked them, "Because you know we can go out again and come back later?"

"No Sir, not at all!" Yudi replied very quickly, "We were just uh…"

"We were just having a bet about whether Yudi or I would get married first!" Huda announced with a sneaky look at Yudi, knowing that it would embarrass him.

"Oh it'll be bro, without a doubt." Neelu replied, "He's far more willing to settle down than you are." Saying this, she sent a rather significant look in Shalini's direction, who was trying very hard not to look at anybody at all.

Raj just grinned, it was good to have Shalini be the one who was embarrassed for once.

Revenge was sweet.

/

The next day proved to be just as busy as the one before, so Raj and Naina were not able to get any time to actually meet at all before the evening. Raj was busy greeting guests who had just arrived and looking after them, while Naina also had a thousand last minute preparations.

It was five pm and Raj was already getting impatient to see her, knowing that she wouldn't arrive for at least another half an hour. He was just checking his watch for about the hundredth time when somebody grabbed him in a huge bear hug from the back.

"Who's…"

Raj turned around to see that it was Suriji who had hugged him, dressed up formally and with Lolitaji by his side wearing a Bengali style sari.

"It's so fantastic to see you two, thank you for coming!" Raj told them, and then shook Lolita's hand and hugged Suriji again, smiling as he remembered Shalini's advice all those months ago about 'no hugging Suriji'. Well, since he and Naina were about to get officially married, he didn't see any harm in it too.

"Congratulations Putar, Kitni sohni jodi hai." Suriji told him proudly, "We wouldn't have missed it for anything. When's our Naina due to arrive?"

"There's still around half an hour to go," Raj told him, "And I hear that we'll be offering you two congratulations soon as well. When's the wedding?"

"It will be in two months." Suriji told him happily, as Lolitaji looked a little shy, "It would've been sooner but our families couldn't decide whether the marriage should be by Punjabi or Bengali customs."

"Well I hope that we'll all be getting an invitation, Sir." Huda told him, choosing that moment to join them. "After all, us former cadets were all cheering on your romance during our academy days."

"Definitely, Putar." Suriji promised him, "I hope that you'll all be able to make it. Now," and he went to pull Huda aside, "What are the arrangements for tonight, I hope that it's going to be a dhoom dhaam celebration."

Raj smiled as they all walked over together, and Aalekh came over, pulling uncomfortably at the kurta pajama he was wearing. He still hadn't gotten used to wearing formal clothes.

"Everything alright, Sir?" Aalekh asked him, "Don't worry, only half an hour until they get here."

"And I can't wait for it," Raj told him, "Even you must be eager to see Neelu, right?"

"Of course, Sir, after all now I'm a…" Aalekh thought about the words for a moment, "Committed man."

By the smile on his face, Raj could tell that Aalekh had never been happier in his entire life. Raj thought it was probably a combination of seeing Naina so happy and being about to settle down himself.

It was then that Ali came up to them, holding a mobile phone which Raj was guessing had probably been a present from Pooja.

"They're on their way," he informed them, "They'll be here in about fifteen minutes."

Raj thought that those were probably going to be the longest fifteen minutes of his entire life.

/

The moment that Naina walked in with her friends, the whole room turned to look at her.

She was absolutely glowing with happiness, and it was easy to see. They had barely gotten five steps before Pooja stopped her.

"What is it, Pooja?" Naina asked confused, and very eager to go forward to where she could see Raj waiting.

"There's just something that I have to do," Pooja told her, and then without warning she made the sign to avert the evil eye from Naina and then using her eyeliner, applied a tiny black dot to Naina's cheek. Naina just blushed, as Neelu grinned.

"Now you're ready," Pooja told her, and allowed Naina to walk forward to where Raj was waiting for her.

"Have I ever told you that…"

"This would be the fourth time." Naina said with a grin, knowing exactly what it was that he wanted to say. Raj grinned back at her, and then taking both of her hands in his, he raised them to his lips and kissed them.

Naina tried not to blush, as the room erupted in cheers and whistles, especially from her former batchmates.

They soon sat down on the couch and the chief mehndi artist arrived to begin Naina's hands and feet, since hers was going to be the longest process. In the meantime, friends and colleagues kept coming up to congratulate them all. There was a live band, so some of the crowd had started dancing, while others were happy to just stand around and talk.

Abhimanyu came up to greet them, and enthusiastically hugged Raj.

"Raj you are truly the best! You know, I thought you might not invite Nandini because of everything that happened in the past, but she's actually here! I can't wait to go and catch up, this is the best opportunity to… well…" and then suddenly he caught Naina staring at them both and realised he might have said too much, so he left rather abruptly.

"Who's this Nandini?" Naina asked Raj.

He was rather uncomfortable answering but decided that it was best to be honest. "She was our batchmate." He told her, "And both Abhi and I liked her, I think she liked Abhi rather more than me, but nothing ended up happening between them."

"So should I be jealous?" Naina asked him, only half joking, "Were you serious about her?"

"Not at all," Raj reassured her, "I can realise that now when I know what real love is, and believe me Naina, I'm not even interested in looking at any girls other than you."

Naina practically melted at his words and she would've hugged him right then if she hadn't had mehndi all over her hands already. She settled for leaning her head on his shoulder instead.

Suddenly Naina noticed that she hadn't seen any of her friends for the last few minutes, and that they all seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. She was just wondering where they had gotten to when suddenly a spotlight appeared on the stage, and she saw a familiar figure holding a microphone.

"Listen up, khotiye," Suriji announced, "We're here for a special reason tonight and that's to celebrate the mehndi and sangeet function of Major Rajveer and Lieutenant Naina, as well as attend their wedding tomorrow." This was met with huge cheers from absolutely everybody in the room. "So we're going to make sure tonight's celebration is truly the best, and for that we've got some help from KMA's batch of 2008!"

Naina immediately realised exactly where it was that all of her friends had disappeared to.

The lights went dark and then suddenly the stage was lit up by a spotlight as Aalekh, Huda, Ali and Yudi appeared along with Pooja. Naina glanced over at Raj but he looked just as clueless as she did, so it was obvious that they had all planned this secretly by themselves.

The music started up and they started performing, as there were once again huge cheers and whistles from everybody in the audience. Naina had to admit that it was quite a good performance, there weren't any major mistakes and they all seemed to know the steps fairly well. She honestly wished that she could clap along with everybody else, but once again the mehndi on her hands stopped her. When their performance was over, Naina was the one cheering loudest of all, while Raj was clapping very enthusiastically.

As they came over to sit with Raj and Naina afterwards, she shook her head at them in disbelief.

"How did you ever manage to arrange that without either of us finding out?" she asked them, "That was amazing, guys!"

"Well Pooja and Neelu choreographed the steps, and then we've been practicing like mad for the last two days." Yudi told them, "Why do you think we were all out of the house for so long or did you think that we were all simply off romancing?"

"Well…" Naina had to admit, that was exactly what she'd thought they'd been doing.

"Okay, don't answer that then," Yudi told her rather hastily.

"Well some time was spent romancing," Pooja admitted, "And we did have to take care of some arrangements, but the rest of the time we were practicing the steps."

"I can't thank you guys enough," Naina told them, "That was absolutely perfect."

"Could we do anything less for our Phoolan?" Huda asked, "Your wedding should be perfect."

The rest of the evening passed smoothly, everybody was soon dancing as the band played a variety of upbeat filmy songs. Raj was content to simply sit beside Naina for most of the evening, feeding her sweets, and chatting quietly. They were never alone for long as absolutely everybody wanted to come up and congratulate them, and their friends also kept coming over to have a chat. Everybody knew that there would be no chance at the wedding because Raj and Naina were leaving almost immediately after the ceremony in order to catch a flight for their honeymoon.

Neelu, Pooja and Shalini soon came over to join them permanently, as they also had to get their mehndi done before the ceremony the next day. Nandini came over to meet Naina and say congratulations, and Naina was pleased to see that she didn't seem to be interested in Raj and that she kept looking over in Abhimanyu's direction.

It was towards the end of the evening that Raj decided it was probably time he said something. Letting Naina know what he was about to do, he went towards the stage and picked up the microphone. He immediately had everybody's undivided attention, as they couldn't wait to hear what he was about to say. After all, it was one of the most awaited weddings of the year.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming," he told them, "Whether you're old friends or new, batchmates, colleagues or my former students." A huge cheer went up at this, from the batch of 2008. "Whoever you all are, you have a special place in Naina's and my lives, and that's why you're here tonight. And so from both Naina and I, I would like to thank you for your support." He searched for Naina's eyes across the room before he said his next sentence, and meeting them, saw her nod her support for him. "Things haven't always been easy for us, in fact we've faced many challenges in order to get to this point."

Raj knew that was a bit of an understatement.

"There were times when we didn't know if we would make it, and if we have then it's only due to the support of some very special people." Raj told them, "So tonight I would like to specially thank those who have stood by us through thick and thin, and who without this wedding wouldn't have been possible. And so now, announcing in no particular order, I would like to thank Shalini, Aalekh, Yudi, Huda, Ali, Pooja, and Neelu, you're the best friends we could ever ask for."

The room erupted in applause at this, and Raj looked over at Naina to see that she and Pooja were both crying happy tears while even Neelu, Shalini and the guys looked like they were becoming very emotional.

When Raj sat back down next to Naina, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she told him, "I couldn't have said it better."

Raj placed an arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the temple affectionately.

"No matter what happens, Naina, whether we have family members or not, we definitely have our friends." He told her.

Naina nodded, no matter what happened, she was ready for tomorrow. It was time for her to begin a new phase in her life, and she would do it with the most important people in her life by her side.

Naina couldn't spend her life regretting the past, she couldn't allow her personal sorrow to ruin her upcoming life with Raj. They had overcome challenges in the past and she knew there would be many more in the future, but they were going to be together and that was what was important.

She was ready to get married.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty Three**

When the girls woke up the next morning, they all exclaimed over the dark colour of Naina's mehndi.

"You know Naina, this means that you and your future husband love each other a lot." Pooja teased her.

"Pooja, did you really need the mehndi to tell you that?" Neelu joked, "I thought that we'd all figured it out a long time ago."

Naina just smiled, she was glad that the mehndi had turned out so well and she was counting down the hours until the actual wedding. But there was something that she had to try and do first, one last time.

Naina dialled a heartbreakingly familiar number, holding her breath until the phone was picked up.

"Hello, Mrs Ahluwalia speaking." The voice on the other end said.

"Ma, it's me Naina, please don't hang up, I promise that if you allow me to talk today, I won't try and call back again." Naina said in a rush of breath, hoping that for once her mother would listen.

"Fine," Naina's mother replied, "Then go ahead and tell me."

"Ma… today is my wedding day." Naina told her, "Can't you forgive me at least today? Couldn't you and Baba please come and attend? I don't know what to do without you both, please at least today forget this fight between us."

Naina's mother was silent for a long time and when she answered her voice was filled with emotion. "It's too late, Naina." She told her, "We won't be able to come to the wedding, it's too difficult for both of us."

"But Ma, just once couldn't you…."

"Naina, the most I can give you is to tell you that I do hope you'll be happy." Her mother told her sincerely and tears came to Naina's eyes. "Don't ask me for anything else."

When her mother hung up the phone, Naina wiped away her tears. She had tried, and in the end at least she had gotten a blessing from her mother for her happiness. It was final, they would not be coming.

"We're with you, Naina." Pooja told her, giving her best friend a hug. Naina nodded, hugged all of her friends and then did her best to control her emotions.

"Come on guys," she told them, "We've got a lot to do today, so we'd better get started."

/

Meanwhile Raj and the boys were in a very disorganised state at his flat, as everybody tried to work out where they were meant to be going and what they were meant to be doing. It had taken days for them all to simply work out who was going to be from the groom's side and who would be from the bride's. In the end it was decided that from the closest friends of the couple, Pooja, Neelu, Aalekh and Ali would be from the bride's side while Huda, Yudi, Shalini and of course Abhimanyu would be from the groom's. This had all been decided after a great deal of swapping around as originally Ali was going to be from the groom's side while Huda was going to be from the bride's. However Huda had bullied Ali into swapping by telling him that he knew he could dance much more impressively as a baarati than Ali would've been able to.

Raj had tried to reassure them all that it didn't really matter who was from which side as long as they all attended the wedding, but nobody was really listening. In fact for the past months leading up to the ceremony, they had all discussed and argued many times about which parts of the ceremony should be traditional and which should be modern. Obviously since they had all arrived only three days before the wedding and because they had limited time, not everything could be included. The lack of relatives on either side of the family also made a more traditional wedding very difficult. Therefore, the ceremony would only have some of the more traditional aspects. Raj had joked that this was probably a good thing, since otherwise Rajput weddings were far too serious, and he didn't know how Huda would cope if he found out he wasn't able to dance as a baarati considering that was why he changed sides in the first place.

Shalini arrived shortly before lunch time to help Raj and the rest of the guys get ready, which signalled to Aalekh and Ali that it was time for them to get going.

Before leaving, Aalekh told Raj that there was one ceremony that had to be completed now, and making Raj sit down, he applied the traditional tilak to his forehead that should have been done by the bride's brother at the official engagement ceremony if they'd held one.

"I know it would've been better if Navin was here to do it," Aalekh told him, "But today I'll try to do my best to play his role."

Raj could barely speak he was so choked up by his emotions. Unable to say anything, he hugged Aalekh tightly, wondering how they would have ever gotten through everything if he hadn't been there to support them.

Aalekh just nodded, understanding Raj's feelings, before taking his leave along with Ali.

"Well…." Shalini began, "We've still got quite a few hours left before the wedding, so everybody can relax. It's all under control!"

Raj breathed a sigh of relief, now that Shalini was here he knew that he didn't need to worry, with her take charge attitude she would soon manage everything.

/

Meanwhile things with Naina and the rest of the girls were certainly not under control.

"I can't believe that we didn't think about this before!" Pooja exclaimed, absolutely horrified, "Who's going to welcome him when he arrives?"

"I think we all just hoped that Naina's parents would eventually give in," Neelu commented, "That's why we didn't bother thinking about it."

"Yes but now what we do about it?" Pooja asked, still feeling quite upset about the fact they'd neglected an important part of the ceremony.

"Relax," Naina told them, "It doesn't really matter who welcomes him as long as it's done. One of you can do it if you like."

Pooja and Neelu both gave her looks as if she'd gone crazy. "Uh Naina, no offense," Neelu told her, "But I think I'm just a little bit young to become Major Rajveer's mother-in-law."

Naina couldn't help smiling at this, picturing the scene in her mind and the look on Raj's face when he saw Neelu there to welcome him. "Fine," she replied, still grinning, "Pooja, your parents said that I was like their second daughter, so what if your mother is the one to do the welcome?"

Everybody nodded, agreeing that this was for the best.

/

There were various other small crises throughout the day, since nobody among them had actually planned a wedding before. But luckily Pooja's parents were there to manage any problems and to greet the earliest of the guests to arrive.

Naina and the rest of the bridal party were at the venue an hour before the wedding was due to arrive, and waited in a room nervously. Naina had already accepted that her parents weren't coming, and it filled her with a quiet sadness. But she had accepted the consequences the day that she decided to begin a relationship with Raj and she had to deal with them. The only thing remaining in her preparations was to put on the heavy jewellery as she preferred to wait until the last moment to do so.

Coming down to sit beside her on the bed, Aalekh took her hand in his and squeezed it. "You make a beautiful bride, Naina." He told her, "Don't take any tension about anything at all today, I'm here to handle it all."

Naina just smiled at him and then at the rest of her friends who were gathered, most of whom were pacing nervously.

"I'm fine, Aalekh, really." She reassured him, "I just hope that everything goes well tonight."

"It definitely will," Ali told her, "We're here to see to that."

/

Finally the moment arrived and Raj prepared to climb onto the horse. He was dressed traditionally in a sherwani, turban, slippers and with a sword at his waist. Abhimanyu's nephew was going to be accompanying him on the horse and Raj could tell that his old friend couldn't be prouder of this moment.

"I just wish that Navin could've been here for this," Abhi told Raj, becoming sad at the thought.

"Navin is with us, Abhi." Raj told him, clasping his friend's hand, "He always has been and he always will be." And Raj truly believed it.

Once Raj was safely onto the horse, Huda let out a loud whistle. "Oy Chak De Phatte!" he yelled out, "Let's get this party started!"

And then accompanied by the band they all danced their way to the venue very enthusiastically. Raj was glad that they had decided to abandon the tradition of nobody dancing during the baarat, it was worth it just to see Huda doing his best moves ever.

Finally they reached the marriage hall and there was much cheering as Raj stepped off the horse, and approached the steps. He smiled when he saw Pooja's mother there with the traditional thali plate. He didn't know what they would've done without her, after she had helped to arrange so much of the wedding.

"Thank you so much, auntyji." He told her, "This really does mean a lot to us."

"You don't need to send me that sms, putar!" Pooja's mother announced happily, "Pooja's pappaji and I have enjoyed our talktime with this wedding very much!"

"Alright auntyji, now let us into the hall!" Huda told her happily, "We've got a groom here who needs to get to his bride!"

Raj could barely contain his excitement, he couldn't wait to see Naina in her bridal outfit for the very first time. He was glad that she hadn't shown it to him before now, as at least now it would be a surprise.

Taking his slippers off, he made his way to the mandap and sat down.

Sitting a little behind him, Shalini leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Excited? Nervous?" she asked him.

"Both," Raj replied quietly, "But mainly I just can't wait to see Naina."

"Well it looks like your wait is over," Shalini announced to him, and pointed in the direction of the stairs.

Raj looked up, and suddenly he forgot how to breathe.

Being led down by Pooja, Neelu, Aalekh and Ali, was Naina. If she had always been the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, then tonight she eclipsed all other occasions. Raj thought that his heart might burst with love it was so full of it, and he stood as she came forward, waiting to welcome her.

Naina was looking downwards, feeling a bit shy as she knew that everybody in the hall was looking at her. Finally the moment came when she was brought to stand face to face with Raj and she looked up into his eyes, her own widening as she saw the way that he was looking at her.

"I love you." Raj announced very suddenly, unable to control himself anymore.

"Yes well that's wonderful," Shalini told him from her position by his side, "But why don't we get you two married and make this love a bit more official."

Everyone laughed at this, and with their friends gathered around, Raj and Naina garlanded each other. As much as Huda was tempted to try and lift Raj out of Naina's reach, he knew that neither of them would appreciate the practical joke so he controlled himself.

After the garlanding, they both headed back to their places in the mandap, as the priest began the ceremony.

"Who are the bride's parents here?" he asked, looking towards Pooja's parents, who he had seen welcoming Raj. "Who is going to do the kanyadan?"

Everyone was silent for a moment and Naina looked down, she had been dreading this moment most of all.

It was then that a strong voice spoke out.

"I'll be doing the kanyadan."

Naina looked up in surprise and gratefulness, as next to her, Raj smiled.

Aalekh stepped forward to take his place beside her.

"And you are?" The priest asked, clearly thinking that this young man didn't look old enough to be giving anybody away.

"I'm the bride's family." Aalekh announced in a very no nonsense tone, daring anybody to call him a liar.

Happy with this explanation, the priest continued the ceremony and as Aalekh gave Naina's hand to Raj, there were tears in her eyes.

Nobody could replace Navin, never. But it was true she had found a new family, one who would never let her down.

Raj held Naina's hand tightly, vowing that now that he had taken it, he would never let it go.

The rest of the ceremony went perfectly to plan, neither Raj nor Naina could stop glancing at each other, and the looks of happiness on their faces were almost identical. It was another step in a very long journey for them, and they were happy to be taking it.

As the mantras continued, Shalini draped the traditional piece of cloth over Naina's head, patting her affectionately as she did so. She was enjoying her role as Raj's relative in this wedding immensely, and couldn't be prouder or happier for the two of them. Settling back down next to Yudi, she wasn't surprised when he reached out to take her hand. Many things still had to be sorted out between both of them, but one thing was for certain, they were finally ready to give a new definition to their relationship.

The priest signalled that it was time for Raj and Naina to get up and complete the pheres, and letting go of Yudi's hand, Shalini leaned forward to tie the knot that would bind them together, smiling affectionately at both of them.

As they took the seven rounds around the fire, both of them made the promises seriously, knowing that from now on their relationship could only grow stronger and stronger, nothing would ever separate them and nobody could ever come between them. Their friends stood around them, throwing flowers at the couple as they made their way around the fire.

Finally the moment they had all been waiting for arrived and Raj fastened the mangalsutra around Naina's neck and applied the sindoor to the part in her hair and the rituals were completed. They stood there smiling at each other for a moment, not actually able to believe that it was finally done. Then forgetting the fact that they were in the middle of their wedding and there were many people watching, Raj leaned forward and hugged Naina, gathering her into his arms. Naina was so caught up in the moment that she didn't even think about the fact that she probably should've been embarrassed, and just hugged him back instead.

"Ahem," Shalini finally said, "There'll be more than enough time for that once you're on your honeymoon. For now maybe you should remember that you're still in the middle of the shaadi hall."

Raj wasn't sure who blushed more, him or Naina, but when he turned around, all of their friends were grinning at them.

"Uh, sorry," Raj apologised sheepishly, "Just got a little too caught up in the moment."

"Well you've still got three hours before you can both leave." Huda told them, "So in that time, you should probably greet some of your guests."

It was then that Brigadier Chandook came forward to greet both of them, and Naina and Raj quickly bent down to take the blessings which he gave gladly.

"I have to congratulate both of you," he told them proudly, "You make a very good looking pair."

"Then you're not angry, Sir?" Raj asked, slightly worried about what the answer would be.

"I trust that you both didn't break any of the rules while you were still at the academy, did you Major Rajveer?" Brigadier Chandook asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"No Sir, never." Raj assured him seriously, "And I just want you to know that when Major Bhargav made those accusations they really were entirely false."

"You don't need to worry, son." Brigadier Chandook told him, "You both have my blessings, I know that not only will you have a happy life together, you'll also make this country proud."

They greeted more of the guests, took some photos and tried to spend as much time with their friends as possible before they left for the airport. The party was going to continue in their absence as everybody was too happy to stop celebrating just because the bridal couple had left for their honeymoon.

Finally the time for the farewell came, and Naina emotionally hugged all of her friends, not knowing when they would all be in the same place again.

"I'm going to miss you all so much," she told them, "Thank you for everything you've done for us. We could never have gotten this far without you all."

"Don't be so emotional, Naina!" Neelu teased her, "It's not as if you're going to settle abroad or anything, in fact you'll be back with us in Delhi in two weeks time."

"And with any luck, Ali and I will be getting married soon too," Pooja added, "So we'll all have a reason to get together again."

After Raj and Naina had changed into less formal clothes, their friends walked them down to the decorated car that would take them to the airport. There was one more round of hugging before they finally got into the car, while everyone waved at them until they'd driven out of sight. If there were tears in more than a few people's eyes then nobody felt any need to comment on it.

Once they could no longer see the car, and were all staring down the driveway, Huda recaptured all of their attention.

"What are we waiting for, guys?" he asked them, "We've just completed one of the most important missions of our life, why don't we go and celebrate? In case you haven't noticed, inside there's music, food and most important, jananiya!"

Laughing, they all headed back inside to enjoy the rest of their night.

/

Three hours later, in a hotel room overlooking the lake at Udaipur, Raj and Naina sat on the bed as he tried to find his name on her palm.

Naina suspected that he might have already found it quite some time ago, but was just enjoying tracing the lines of mehndi on her palms. It didn't bother her, she wasn't about to stop him. They had all the time in the world, and there were no more obstacles left between them.

Finally finding it, Raj tapped his name softly with a finger before leaning down to kiss her palm. Naina tried not to shiver at this, but after all, tonight was their wedding night.

"I found it," Raj told her quietly, looking up from her palm and into her eyes, without releasing her hand.

"Just on my hand?" Naina asked him softly, "You could looked anywhere and found your name if you really tried. It's been written on my heart for the longest time already."

It might have been something of a filmy statement, but Raj didn't care, it was the most romantic thing he had ever heard.

Slowly, carefully he leaned forward to kiss her, while there was passion, there was no urgency, they could take their time. Naina's heart soared at the feel of his lips on hers, and she brought one hand up to cup his cheek before sliding it behind his head to tangle in his hair.

"Don't think for a moment that I'm going to allow you to sleep tonight." Raj whispered into her ear, and Naina smiled.

"Did you really think that I'd want to?" she asked him, "Our first night of marriage… I don't want to close my eyes in case I wake up and find out that it was all a dream."

"It's not a dream, Naina." Raj told her, "This is our reality, and we've had to work hard to make it. In the end, everything has been worthwhile, all of the waiting, all of the separation."

Naina had to agree with him, everything had been worthwhile for this moment in time, for the life they had ahead of them.

And as Raj leaned forward to kiss her again, touching her face almost reverently, Naina was absolutely sure that she had done the right thing.

She had a long and happy life ahead of her with a husband that she loved more than her own life.

Nothing could be better than that.


	24. Chapter 24

**Epilogue**

_Five years later…_

Mr Ahluwalia had been relaxing in his chair with a book when there was a knock at the front door. Knowing that his wife was in the kitchen preparing lunch, he got up to open it, wondering who it could be.

They didn't have many visitors these days, in fact the house had felt very empty, ever since…

Opening the door, he didn't immediately recognise the young man in the army uniform who stood on the other side.

It was enough that it was an army officer standing at his door and suddenly the memories of all those years ago came back. There were only a few reasons why army officers in uniform might make a visit to the parents of a soldier, and most of them weren't good.

And more than five and a half years after he had told Naina to leave the house, fear built up inside him that something had happened to her… that she might be…

Because no matter what, she was still their daughter.

"I don't think you recognise me, Sir." The young man continued, "I'm Captain Aalekh Sharma, we met at Naina's graduation. I was wondering if I could come inside to speak to you?"

"Yes, do come in." Mr Ahluwalia told him, trying to hide the worry in his voice.

As soon as they had entered the lounge room and Aalekh had settled into one of the chairs, Mr Ahluwalia called his wife out from the kitchen, knowing that whatever Captain Sharma was here for was important.

Mrs Ahluwalia turned white as soon as she saw him, also remembering the visits by army officers after Navin's death.

"Is Naina… is she alright?" she asked hesitantly, holding the back of one of the chairs for support.

Aalekh turned towards her, his lips curved up in an unhappy smile. "So then it matters to you if something has happened to Naina?" he asked them bitterly, "You would be upset if she was injured or dead?"

"Don't talk like that!" Mr Ahluwalia told him sharply, "She's our daughter, of course we would be! Now tell us right now, is Naina alright?"

"Oh, so now you've remembered that you have a daughter." Aalekh continued, taking his beret off and holding it in his hands. "That's funny, because I don't see that you've remembered any time in the past five years."

"Of course we've remembered," Mrs Ahluwalia told him, "We remember Naina every day. It wasn't our fault that we were separated, it was her choice. She chose to go with him… she chose to leave us."

"Naina didn't choose to leave you." Aalekh told them angrily, "She chose to be true to her heart. She chose to follow the path her brother would've wanted for her. It was your choice to break ties with her and reject her."

"What were we supposed to do?" Mr Ahluwalia asked him bitterly, "She chose to marry the murderer of her brother. How could we ever forgive her for that? How could we ever forgive him?"

"I'm sorry for speaking so disrespectfully, Uncle." Aalekh announced very shortly, "But your problem is that you want somebody to blame for your son's death, and instead of blaming those who trapped him, you blamed the one who set him free." His gaze was piercing, as he looked into both of their eyes, "Rajveer never wanted to kill Navin, it almost cost him his own life to do so. It was only because Navin forced him to by a promise of friendship that he did. Your son chose to die by a friend's hand rather than by an enemy's."

Both of Naina's parents were shaking their heads silently, trying to deny what Aalekh was saying. All of these years later, somebody had turned up at their house to tell them that they were wrong and their daughter was right.

"You have to understand," Mr Ahluwalia told Aalekh emotionally, "He killed our son, and we…"

"And you couldn't try to understand him or forgive him." Aalekh finished for him, "Did you ever think that Rajveer never actually needed to tell you the truth? If he'd wanted to then he could've concealed it from you and if he'd done that, then you probably would've been happier than anybody else when he came and asked to marry Naina."

Both Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia had to admit that it was the truth, if Raj hadn't killed their son then both of them would've thought he was the perfect son-in-law.

"Please, just tell us what's happened to Naina?" Mrs Ahluwalia asked him, "Is she alright?"

"You would know that if you had bothered to read even one of the letters she's written to you." Aalekh replied, "What did you do with them? Throw them out or put them in a drawer unopened?"

"They're in a box," Mr Ahluwalia told him quietly, "We always thought that maybe one day…"

"You would finally have the courage to read them when you realised how wrong you had been?" Aalekh asked, still angry but now a little bit softer, "Do you realise that when she left your house for the last time she didn't stop crying for a week? And it was us, her friends, who had to try to help her cope."

He stood up and suddenly paced to the fireplace where there was a family photo of Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia, Navin and Naina, all much happier and younger.

"Do you know," he asked them, "That the rituals you should've completed for her at the wedding were done by other people? That I was the one who did the kanyadan?"

They stared at him silently, it was something that they had both found themselves wondering over the years, about how Naina's marriage had been and who had conducted it.

"And it's not even Naina that I feel the most sorry for," Aalekh told them, "It's both of you. Because at least Naina had her friends to stand by her in the difficult times, whereas you have missed one of the most important moments of your daughter's life."

Aalekh turned back from the fireplace to look at them both in turn. "I never understood it you know," he told them, "I'm an orphan, I would've done anything for parents, but now I think I was better off without them. Because after losing your son, you threw away your daughter so easily as well."

Mrs Ahluwalia was crying openly now and even Mr Ahluwalia had tears in his eyes.

"And now, you must be wondering whether it's too late, whether you've lost her forever." Aalekh told them, "But I've come to tell you that you've got another chance. You have the opportunity to attend another important event in your daughter's life, because last night your daughter became a mother for the first time."

Mrs Ahluwalia gasped, partially in relief and partially in happiness, something that she hadn't felt properly for quite a long time.

"That's all I wanted to tell you," Aalekh informed them, "Now I'm going back to Naina's side. If you want to regain your daughter before it's too late, then you can find her in room 512 of the military hospital in Delhi."

And without waiting for a reply, he put his beret back on his head and strode out of the house.

/

Naina was exhausted but happy as she held her son in her arms. She had been asleep for the last few hours after the delivery but after waking up all she wanted to do was look into her little boy's eyes. Raj sat beside her on the bed, one arm around her and one hand stroking the baby's thick black hair.

He couldn't take his eyes off either Naina or his son, and leaning over, he kissed her on the forehead, then leaned his head against hers.

"You're still the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." He told her, smiling against her hair.

"Even in this state?" Naina asked him, knowing very well that she must look terrible.

"In every state." Raj told her, "And you better get used to hearing it because I'm still going to be telling you when we're both eighty with no teeth and white hair."

Naina laughed at this, and tilting her head slightly, gave him a short yet sweet kiss on the lips.

"I think he's got your nose." She told Raj, "And your chin."

"But he's definitely got your eyes, and that's a good thing, he won't have any problems charming girls in the future with eyes like those."

"We know what we're calling him, don't we?" Naina asked, smiling sadly.

"Of course," Raj replied, "There was never any other choice if our child was a boy. The only thing we have to think about is what we'll call his future brothers and sisters."

"Arre bapre," Naina said, pretending to be shocked, "Why don't we wait a little while before thinking about our future children?"

Raj started laughing at this, and hugged Naina to himself even tighter.

"I really, really, really, really love you." He told her, leaning over to kiss her again. "If I didn't have you then I would have nothing. You know that don't you, Naina? You're my everything."

Naina burst into happy tears at this and Raj tried to soothe her, rubbing her back and kissing her repeatedly on her hair. "I'm sorry," she told him, "I think it's just the hormones. What did I ever do to deserve a husband like you?"

There was a quiet knock on the door and Pooja peaked around it, "Can we come back in?" she asked Raj, "We're all waiting anxiously to hold our nephew again."

Naina smiled and nodded at Pooja to call everyone inside, which she did. She walked in somewhat awkwardly as she was six months pregnant with her and Ali's first child. They were married six months after Raj and Naina, holding two ceremonies, one Sikh and one Muslim so that both of their families were happy.

The rest of their friends followed her in, everybody crowding around to get as good a look at the baby as possible and arguing about who would hold him first and who was going to be his favourite aunty and uncle.

Neelu and Aalekh had gotten married about six months after Ali and Pooja, leading to a joke among the friends that they would have to hold a wedding every six months until nobody was left.

However the next three months after that had been Abhimanyu and Nandini's wedding which was held in true royal style in his home kingdom.

It was five months after that that Yudi and Shalini finally got married, to everybody's delight. They were currently in the process of adopting a child and hoped to have a little son or daughter very soon.

With everybody else accounted for, the only one remaining had been Huda. For a long time he had very stubbornly refused to get married, stating that if he did then it would be unfair to the many girls who loved him. However one year ago he had finally met a girl in his regiment that he had gone absolutely crazy for. Now after one year of wooing her, they had gotten engaged a month ago. Naina had warned him not to leave it any later than that or she might go into labour at the ceremony.

They had all progressed well in their careers too, everybody now at the rank of Captain. Due to his competitive nature, Abhimanyu had been very happy to finally become a Major as he was Raj's equal again. After completing their graduations, Naina and Pooja had both gone to join their husbands, working in the infirmaries and hospitals in the bases they worked on. Shalini had also left KMA so that she could be posted with Yudi, and the normally very independent Neelu was happy to find work wherever Aalekh was posted.

It was currently Pooja and Ali's turn to hold the baby, and they were both cooing over him.

"I just know it, Naina!" Pooja told her, "When they grow up your son will get married to my daughter, they'll make such a beautiful jodi!"

"Hey!" Neelu said indignantly, "And what if Naina's son wants to get married to my daughter instead? I think she would be a much better choice!" Although Neelu and Aalekh hadn't started a family yet, they were planning on doing so very soon.

Naina just laughed at this, "Guys, stop it. Neither of you actually have daughters yet to get married to my son, so this argument is pointless. Pooja, how do you know you're not having a son instead?"

"Well if I am then you'll have to have a daughter." Pooja told her, "And then they can get married instead."

Naina just half laughed and half groaned, by the way she could feel Raj's chest was shaking where she leaned against it, she could tell that he was finding it all very funny as well.

Suddenly Naina looked around, realising that one of the most important people in her life was missing.

"Neelu, where's Aalekh?" she asked, "He was here earlier this morning, where has he gone now?"

"You don't worry," Neelu told Naina, "He'll be back soon, he just had something to do."

Nobody wanted to tell Naina about Aalekh's plan just in case it failed. They didn't want her to get her hopes up only to be disappointed.

Sure enough, Aalekh arrived back soon after that, but he was alone. At Raj's enquiring look he just nodded once.

Making his way over to the bed, Aalekh patted Naina's head affectionately and squeezed her hand, then going over to where Abhimanyu was now holding the baby he held out his arms.

"Come on, give me my nephew." He told them, "I've waited long enough to hold him."

Naina wondered why the atmosphere in the room seemed to have changed somewhat ever since Aalekh had arrived back, as if everybody was expecting something.

She had just turned to Raj to ask him what was going on, when suddenly he straightened, removed his hand from around her shoulders and stood up next to the bed.

Naina turned back towards the doorway, wanting to know what he was looking at.

There stood a sight that she had longed to see for five and a half years, her parents.

"Ma, Baba…" Naina said, tears coming to her eyes as she struggled to sit up properly. Raj helped her, propping up pillows behind her back so that she was comfortable, then stepped back at a short distance so that her parents could come forward. "You're here?" she finally asked them, unable to say anything else.

"Yes we're here," Naina's father told her, his voice filled with emotion, "We've arrived quite late but we finally made it."

Naina burst into tears again, and her parents rushed forward to hug her, as Raj stood back and watched. It was enough for him if they forgave Naina, he couldn't expect them to forgive him as well.

Raj made a sign to Aalekh, asking him to bring the baby over. Carefully he put Raj and Naina's son into Mrs Ahluwalia's arms and stepped back.

"Ma, Baba, meet your grandson." Naina told them.

"What have you decided to name him?" her mother asked.

"There was never any need to choose," Raj told them, "If we had a son then his name was always going to be Navin."

They both stared at Raj in astonishment, really noticing him for the very first time. They saw the quiet sadness in the way he stood before him, and the deep love in his eyes when he gazed at their daughter. The way that Naina gazed back up at him, a look of complete adoration on her face.

"Forgive us, son." Mr Ahluwalia announced very suddenly, before he lost the courage to do so. "We never tried to understand you, all we could do was blame you. And because of that we not only lost our daughter, but our son-in-law as well. Too much time has been wasted, I don't want to waste any more now." And standing up from where he had been sitting by Naina's bed, he made a small motion to Raj to come to them.

Raj could barely believe that this was happening after more than five years of heartbreak and rejection. Moving carefully he stepped forward, then bent down to touch both Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia's feet. When they both placed their hands upon his head to give him their blessings, he couldn't help but begin crying. Mr Ahluwalia pulled him into a hug, and Raj hugged him back fully, filled with an indescribable happiness. Glancing back at Naina he saw that she had begun crying again too, as had just about everybody else in the room.

"Abhi bas hai, Naina." Her mother told her, "No more tears. We've all cried too much and now it's time for some happiness. I can't believe how much time we've wasted and we would've wasted even more if it hadn't been for this young man." She indicated Aalekh who had been standing quietly until now.

"Aalekh, you did all this…?" Naina asked him.

"And who else?" Huda asked, "We knew that if we wanted a miracle, the only thing that would do it was our Qaidi's jadoo."

"I've finally fulfilled my duty," Aalekh told Naina quietly, "Or how else could I ever have the right to call myself your friend?"

As Naina looked like she was going to burst into tears yet again, Raj quickly took her hand, "No more crying." He told her, "Not ever. Well at least not until the next time you give birth."

Naina started laughing at this instead, and kissed Aalekh on the cheek and hugged him when he came forward.

"Alright, I promise." She told him, "No more crying, at least for today. But what else am I supposed to do when I'm so incredibly happy? Finally I have all of the important people in my life with me, and they all happen to be in the same room."

/

Hours later after much talking and catching up everybody has gone home for the night and Naina's parents had booked into a hotel, little Navin was sleeping in his cot, and Naina and Raj sat on the bed together alone.

"Everything is finally complete," Naina whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder, "What else can I possibly want in life now?"

"As long as I have you in my life I don't need anything else." Raj told her, "You're right, everything is complete now."

Sighing happily, Naina entwined her fingers with his.

"Did you ever think, all those years ago when we first met, or even when we first began this relationship that it would work out this way?" she asked him, "Back in those days when I was your best cadet and you were my Rajveer Sir."

Raj smiled at that, "You're still my best cadet, Naina, and you always will be." He told her, "But no, I could never have imagined it would turn out this well. We had to go through a lot of challenges and heartbreak to reach this point, but we finally have."

"I love you," Naina told him sleepily, "I know I say it a lot, but I always just want to say it more."

"I love you too," Raj replied, "And you can say it as often as you want, it's my favourite thing to hear. But right now, you need to get some sleep." 

Naina nodded, agreeing with him and lay down on the bed, making sure to leave enough room for Raj to lie down with her. Doing so, he placed an arm over her waist protectively, moving closer so that she was cradled against him.

As Naina's breaths grew deeper and she drifted into sleep, Raj couldn't help thinking how lucky he was.

If somebody had told him eight years ago that he would end up falling in love with and marrying his best cadet he would've told them that they were crazy.

Now he couldn't imagine any possibility for his life other than this.

Naina was his past, present and future, she was his everything. And now with the birth of their son Navin, they were finally complete.

Raj felt himself drifting off to sleep and allowed his eyes to close.

There would be plenty of time to savour his happiness in the morning.

And every morning after that.

For the rest of their lives.

**The End**


End file.
